Special Master Has a Simple Test That May Be Disaster for Trump

[zuul]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/special-master-raymond-dearie-has-simple-test-that-may-be-disaster-for-donald-trump

Former President Donald Trump’s battle with the FBI over its search of Mar-a-Lago has moved from South Florida to New York City, where a court-appointed “special master” on Tuesday indicated he has a very simple test for whether he sides with the Department of Justice.

The special master, Raymond J. Dearie, said Tuesday that if Trump’s lawyers don't officially counter whether the documents the former president took are classified, then Dearie will side with the DOJ.

“As far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it,” he said.

Dearie, a semi-retired federal judge in Brooklyn who’s playing the role of temporary referee, wants to speed up the process and get federal agents back on track. And while Trump has been alleging on social media that he already declassified the records he swiped from the White House, Dearie is demanding that Trump put up or shut up. The senior judge is asking that Trump’s team assert—in sworn affidavits where lies could mean jail time—whether or not Trump actually declassified them.

[grumpyduck]

1. Ok, but can a POTUS actually declassify materials

just because he wants to? And isn't there a paper trail during the process?

Or is he just fed up and is telling them to go fuck themselves?

[Imperialism Inc.]

11. I think the way to look at it is this...

The President is the ultimate classification/de-classification authority so he can indeed declassify anything on his say so. However, if there is no paper trail for it how would anyone know he did it? A court is not just going to accept someone's say-so with no evidence. After all if something is declassified people can see it with a freedom of information request. How would anyone know to release documents if the president didn't tell anyone they were declassified?

And just to be clear, there is an executive order detailing the process. Written by Obama, that Trump could have changed any time he wanted (but didn't). But, if the (current) President like decided to reveal classified info during an interview or something he wouldn't be breaking the law because he is the law with respect to classification status.

[uponit7771]

38. Let's say TFG can prove all docs are declassified he'd still have to prove they were his. MAGA is ..

... misreading Jackson's "Clinton's sock drawer" ruling to mean the president can claim ownership of any docs belonging to the US government cause they're stupid and can't read.

The documents TFG took are marked indicating they belong to the USG Clinton's "tapes" we're not.

Even if TFG can prove the documents are declassified he'd also have to prove that the documents were his personal possession, not the United States governments.

[Cha]

2. Please Make It Happen! The DOJ

is the Reality of National Security.

DT is the Treasonous Thief

[Cha]

3. DT must be pissing

ketchup by now!

[soldierant]

26. Are you sure there is actually enough inside him for that?

So much ended up on the walls.

[Cha]

33. Seen Leaving MAL..

Link to tweet

[soldierant]

36. ROTFLMAOAPMP!

[Beachnutt]

4. When do they have to put up or shut up ?

[in2herbs]

10. I read on a twitter thread that the SM scheduled another hearing for 10/7. I suspect

this is to allow the 11th Cir to rule since tfg could appeal today's SM's ruling if the SM had specifically concluded that the docs belong to the DOJ at today's hearing.

Side point: tfg is alleging that the docs are declassified because he wrote on them. Well, did he write on them while he was POTUS or did he write on them at Mar-a-Lago?

[Just A Box Of Rain]

5. Nice.

[getagrip_already]

6. just as pointed.... but another slapdown

He was asked by a tfg lawyer about starting the process for security clearances.

He said he had considered it, but if the lawyers had a need to know, they would know.

"Need to know" is a term applied to access. It isn't ordered by a judge. It is an operational need required by the team owning the document.

Lawyers don't have a need to know what is in specific documents to defend their clients because the contents won't be presented in court. A stand in proxy description will be used. The courts have procedures for that.

They are there to prevent a defendant from blackmailing the state by making them reveal secrets in court. So they use stand ins.

Not even the prosecutors would know exactly what was in the docs. They would use the same descriptions the defense would get.

[Demanchor]

17. Trump wanted loyalty

He chose loyal lawyers not lawyers with the experience and expertise in crimes with top secret documents.

His total distain for intelligence and experience and skill will be his utter downfall.

His lawyers show their loyalty by not recognizing they don’t have the experience they need with this particular crime. That’s why their response was bafflement over how they wouldn’t “need to know”. They don’t grasp the terminology. They’re in so far over their heads it’s comical.

I’m enjoying this situation so much I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop smiling.

[Jim__]

7. Does Cannon dare remove The Special Master?

From page 7 of her ORDER APPOINTING SPECIAL MASTER:

17. The Special Master shall be discharged or replaced only upon order of this Court. The
Court reserves the right to remove the Special Master.

I really doubt she's that stupid.

[The Third Doctor]

9. Idk about that.

She was dumb enough to get into this.

[bluestarone]

18. I thinking she WILL!

Seems like ALL CULT people think of one thing. Their lord and savior ORANGE JESUS! The SON OF GOD!!

[3catwoman3]

25. They don't think he's the son...

...of gawd, they think he is actually gawd.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Reality is what the evidence says it is, unless there exists additional evidence

Seems reasonable to me

[Chainfire]

12. I think Trump's argument is, "If I steal it, it is mine."

[getagrip_already]

19. ahh, the toddlers creed.....

What's mine is mine
What's yours is mine
If I want it and you have it, its mine
If I have it and you want it, it's still mine
If I can't have it, I'll break it into a million pieces so nobody else can have it either

[Lonestarblue]

13. The point that seems to keep getting lost is that all these documents belong to the government.

Both the classified and unclassified ones. The Presidential Records Act clearly states that all records created during a president’s term must be turned over to NARA at the end of the term, including the president’s handwritten and other notes. The president or a surrogate may have access to documents for writing a memoir, but I don’t think they have access to still relevant top secret documents. Plus, the current president has deemed Trump a security risk and denied him security briefings, which I interpret that he has no right to see classified security documents.

Trump stole documents that belong to the government. He clearly does not own those documents.

[TheRickles]

14. He thinks he owns the documents because he's on the same page as Louis XIV: "L'etat, c'est moi".

[keithbvadu2]

34. 'I'm The Only One That Matters,' Trump Says Of State Dept. Job Vacancies November 3, 2017

'I'm The Only One That Matters,' Trump Says Of State Dept. Job Vacancies
November 3, 2017

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/03/561797675/im-the-only-one-that-matters-trump-says-of-state-dept-job-vacancies

[Pinback]

39. His life-long motto

— and he’s got plenty of followers who agree.

Life will be so much better when he’s gone and forgotten, but I don’t know if we’ll reach that point in my lifetime.

[bluestarone]

27. EXACTLY!

Thread winner!

[CharleyDog]

15. A president takes secrets and does what he wants with them

Is that what we are allowing? The president can keep documents with him (in bed, on the plane, at the golf course) as much as he likes, he can willy-nilly tell/show people secrets, he could sell them or give them away and the DOJ or the Military, or DHS cannot do anything about it because he decided to it expedient to "declassify"?

I just can't understand why the Military did not know where their precious documents were every second of the day. Maybe these documents need to be fitted with a tracking device. (they are paper-thin SIM cards that can be placed between layers of paper.)

[Blue Owl]

16. The Special Master of Monumental Disaster

[Martin68]

20. Lucky the SM turned out to be a real judge, not a Trump Judge. This should prove very

embarrassing for the loose cannon on deck.

[elleng]

23. Right

[keithbvadu2]

21. Earlier articles mentioned that Dotard's lawyers proclaim loudly on social media that he declassifie

Earlier articles mentioned that Dotard's lawyers proclaim loudly on social media that he declassified them but don't seem to want to say that under oath or affidavit.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

22. This matter of him claiming to have de-classified the docs makes me wonder;

certainly there is a master list or some sort of (borrowing from my manufacturing background) configuration list of all the docs in that category. Certainly there is a process to change the status of said docs (review by the intelligence sector, military etc) before the status can change; isn't there?

[elleng]

24. Doubt it.

'a master list'

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

30. some place, some where there must be a way to control this information.

if not, then how do we know people haven't stolen material before this? Some one knows where this stuff is at all times, I hope. How did you know who get them? They weren't originally stored at the White House. Somehow the files got from where they were to his office. Someone has to know...........

[elleng]

32. There SHOULD be, but I tend to doubt that such A document or documentS exist.

The ARCHIVES may have the closest docs reasonably available.

[TigressDem]

29. There is a process that produces a paper trail and those papers do not exist.

Unless they are with the missing Top Secret Documents, which means, "I meant to do it, but never got around to it, so I told Twitter."

He thinks he "declassified them with his magic wand" when he declared it on Twitter as he was the magical pResident... even though he had lost and was leaving the White House as a FORMER pRes AND a LOSER.


https://www.businessinsider.com/ex-doj-official-would-be-evidence-if-trump-declassified-documents-2022-8

David Laufman, a former chief of the Justice Department's counterintelligence division, dismissed the idea of the standing order or broad declassification.

"It can't just be an idea in his head," Laufman, who led the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails and handling of classified documents, told CNN. "Programs and officials would have been notified. There is no evidence they were."

Presidents have broad authority to declassify documents, but former Trump administration officials told CNN there is a process that is followed. The process typically involves documenting the declassification and notifying agencies, such as the CIA, NSA, or Defense Department.

Laufman had previously said the documents Trump was holding at Mar-a-Lago were particularly "stunning" and "egregious" because of their level of classification. Court records showed that one set of documents was labeled "Sensitive Compartmented Information," the highest level of sensitivity a classified document can be designated.

Former Trump White House officials also pushed back on Trump's claim that he had a "standing order" to declassify documents when they were transported. Two of Trump's former chiefs of staff, John Kelly and Mick Mulvaney, told CNN they'd never heard of such an order.

"Nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given," said Kelly, who was Trump's chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019. "And I can't imagine anyone that worked at the White House after me that would have simply shrugged their shoulders and allowed that order to go forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop it."

CNN spoke with a total of 18 former Trump administration officials, some unnamed, who all said they had never heard of such an order, with several laughing at the idea and suggesting Trump had made it up.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

31. Thanks!

This information (about the process) needs to be thrown in the face of you-know-who and everyone supporting his bullshit notion he can just arbitrarily declassify information.

[TigressDem]

28. SO WHAT IF.... they keep getting Special Masters and ALL OF THEM DO THE SAME THING?

THAT would be a RIOT!!!

Basically, he never pays his lawyers, so all lawyers should simply ASK FOR THE FACTS and if they get dismissed, then the list piles up of how many times tRump refused to answer the question and it shows a little bit of OBSTRUCTION me thinks.

[TiredGenXFemme]

35. It'll be good to see this move forward.

Dearie has a reputation for being slow and deliberate. Personally, I think the best the Trump legal team was hoping for was a special master who would help facilitate their preferred legal strategy of "delay, delay, delay". Dearie is slow and deliberate out of ethics and following the letter of the law; not as a delay tactic. Orange toast!

[lindysalsagal]

37. He doesn't want just attestations, he wants proof.

Of course, that would have been furnished already if it existed.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

40. Dearie asks Trump lawyers whether they believe FBI lied about seized documents

The special master is going to force TFG's attorneys to answer some key questions. This will be fun

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/22/dearie-trump-order-declassify/

The Mar-a-Lago special master on Thursday ordered Donald Trump’s lawyers to state in a court filing whether they believe FBI agents lied about documents seized from the former president’s Florida residence in a court-authorized search last month, or claimed to have taken items that were not actually in Trump’s possession.

In a Thursday afternoon filing, U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie — the special master — told Trump’s legal team to state by Sept. 30 whether they believe any of the seized items were incorrectly described in the Justice Department’s 11-page inventory list, which said some of the documents were highly classified.

Dearie also told them to say whether they are claiming that any items on the inventory list were not in fact taken from the premises.

Trump has said on social media and in television interviews that the FBI planted items when they searched his Mar-a-Lago residence and private club on Aug. 8. He also claimed to have declassified documents found in that search that were marked classified and were highly sensitive. His lawyers have not made similar assertions in court, however, instead saying they have not reviewed the seized materials and are unable to confirm whether the government’s inventory list is accurate.

Dearie’s order, in essence, demands that Trump’s lawyers back up their client’s claims. “This submission shall be Plaintiff’s final opportunity to raise any factual dispute as to the completeness and accuracy of the Detailed Property Inventory,” he wrote.

At a hearing Tuesday, Dearie pressed Trump’s lawyers to take a position on whether the classified documents were, as Trump has said, declassified, but they demurred.