Dear listeners,
There’s been a lot of legal news in the last ten days, and so today’s show is on the long side: nearly an hour. It’s also free for all listeners in its full length. So, if you like this episode and find it useful, how about recommending it to a friend who’d also like to stay abreast of all the latest Trump legal news?
On this week’s episode, you will hear about:
The oddly snippy correspondence between Judge Aileen Cannon and the much more senior federal judge she’s named as special master overseeing the Mar-a-Lago documents, Raymond Dearie. Cannon’s micromanagement of Dearie is unusual, since usually judges appoint special masters so they can avoid the work of making certain detailed decisions; it’s also pretty unusual that Dearie, who technically works for Cannon, openly suggested that Cannon erred in one of her orders — but then, this whole case is unusual, as is the form of relief Judge Cannon has provided to Donald Trump, which Dearie now has the unglamorous task of overseeing.
Even as Cannon and Dearie bicker over it, it’s not clear how much the special master’s review matters anymore, now that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has given DOJ the relief it most wanted: Being able to continue using the marked-classified documents it seized from Mar-a-Lago for criminal investigative purposes, and not having to show those documents to Trump or his lawyers. Still, DOJ would like out of the whole thing, and has asked the 11th Circuit to rule more broadly on an appeal of Judge Cannon before the end of the year.
The answer to a listener’s question about whether Trump’s position as a former president vests him with any added responsibilities, in the eyes of the courts, in addition to the ability to gain special dispensation.
Which “Real Housewives” franchise best embodies the spirit of Donald Trump’s fractious legal team.
An update on prosecutions related to the January 6 riot — more than 900 defendants have been charged, the government hasn’t lost a single trial, and longer sentences have been handed down as more serious and complex cases have moved through the courts. Meanwhile, the most complex trial yet — the Oath Keepers trial — is under way. It features a defendant (Stewart Rhodes) who graduated from Yale Law School and has some… creative legal theories about how his actions were justified.
And a look at dueling appellate decisions in the 5th and 11th Circuits, reaching different conclusions about whether state governments can tell social media platforms what content to host on their sites.
Whew! We hope you enjoy this episode. If you have comments or questions, please share them below. And if you enjoyed the episode and want to get every future episode at its full length, sign up below to become a paying subscriber and you won’t miss a thing.
Best,
Josh
Snippy Judges, Busy Courtrooms