That didn’t take long: Court of Appeals fully sides with DOJ against Donald Trump in classified documents battle
So that didn’t take long at all. After lowest-level federal Judge Aileen Cannon issued the gibberish pro-Trump ruling that a special master must be appointed to oversee the classified documents that the DOJ seized from Trump’s home, the DOJ appealed the ruling. Over the weekend the Court of Appeals ordered Trump to respond by yesterday. His response was junk, and so today the Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the DOJ.
The Court of Appeals has given the DOJ the go-ahead to immediately move forward with the classified documents that it seized from Trump’s home. This means the DOJ’s criminal case against Trump is back in action, and the DOJ can indict Trump in whatever timeframe it was originally planning.
This means that Special Master Dearie is now relegated to overseeing and sorting the other evidence that was seized from Trump’s home, which is likely of little importance to the DOJ’s case. Yesterday, Dearie stated that he was inclined to immediately hand the DOJ the classified evidence anyway.
Donald Trump can try to appeal the Court of Appeals ruling. But there are two keys here. First, Judge Cannon, who appears to be in Trump’s pocket, is now out of the picture. The Court of Appeals outranks her, and has spoken. And even if Trump does appeal this upwards, the DOJ has the advantage here because the DOJ now gets to work with the classified evidence while Trump is trying to put together an appeal.
It’ll be interesting to see if Trump’s antics could prompt the DOJ to go ahead and indict him more quickly, in order to cut off his ability to keep playing these kinds of games. There has been a lot of speculation as to whether the DOJ might be looking to indict Trump before the midterms or after the midterms. The “60 day rule” does not apply to Trump, because he’s not a 2022 candidate, but it’s hard to imagine the DOJ arresting Trump, say, a week before the midterms. That said, the DOJ could decide to arrest Trump as soon as possible, before he can file yet another nonsense filing. Stay tuned.
