After ex-President Donald Trump demanded the appointment of a so-called “Special Master” to hand-review the hundreds of classified government documents that were seized from his Mar-a-Lago resort last month — and his demand, among others, was granted by the Trump-appointed judge who was conveniently assigned to the case — this week has seen the first leg of court hearings from Donald’s hand-picked guy, Raymond Dearie. However, Americans and the scandal-ridden ex-president alike have quickly come to learn that Dearie isn’t shaping up to be the Trump sycophant that Donald and his legal team were undoubtedly hoping for.
In this week’s round of court hearings, Dearie has already demanded that Trump and his legal team fork over the evidence to back up two of the former president’s most prominent claims in the scandal: the notion that Donald Trump declassified all of the government information he stole, before taking it from the White House (something he claimed during a Hannity interview this week that he was able to do with the power of his mind alone) and the claim that FBI agents planted evidence at Trump’s Palm Beach compound when they executed the search and seizure warrant raid.
Trump and his team have been less than cooperative with both of those challenges.
The ex-president himself has undeniably leaned heavily into these claims and excuses as to why his unsecured Mar-a-Lago country club was found to be chock full of highly-classified, top-secret government documents, despite the multiple attempts made by the National Archives and Records Administration to retrieve the materials before being forced to resort to the search and seizure warrant issued by the Justice Department. However, Donald’s legal team has seemingly been very careful to not actually use those arguments in court — leaving the attorneys and the client appearing to struggle with even getting their stories straight.
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Many have been left to wonder what Dearie, who was, again, picked by Trump and his team, is up to, being that he certainly doesn’t seem to be taking Donald’s side in the matter.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig, who formerly served as a federal prosecutor, theorized that this is the Special Master’s way of not only trying to weed out the former guy’s falsehoods but also a way to test the Trump legal team to determine if the ex-president’s lawyers are willing to lie on his behalf in a courtroom.
“The power of our courts is they have a way of bringing out truth. Perhaps a person can get away with fudging the truth in their public statements, in the media, in their private life, in their business. But when you step into a court, ultimately, the judge or the jury will say, fine, that’s your allegation, now prove it,” Honig explained.
“And you can see the tension in Donald Trump’s legal team because they will not say the things in court about declassification and planting that he is saying because lawyers have an ethical obligation.”
“You cannot make a false statement to a court. You can argue aggressively for your client, you could try to poke holes in what the other side is doing, but you cannot lie. This is really a test for Donald Trump,” the former federal prosecutor turned CNN legal analyst said.
Irony certainly whooped Donald Trump and his legal team in the end, after his lawyers spent weeks in court trying to convince federal court judge Aileen Cannon to appoint the Special Master that the Justice Department opposed and their client was demanding to review the stolen documents, and effectively bring the FBI’s investigation to a screeching halt. However, once Donald’s wish was granted, and his hand-picked Special Master was appointed, Dearie’s appearance on the scene has only seemed to backfire for the scandal-ridden former guy.
Dearie has a deadline of November 30th to complete his review of the seized documents and return anything he determines to be protected by executive privilege rules back to Donald Trump.
To make matters all the worse for the former president and his case, the DOJ was able to secure a win this week when they were granted access back to the stolen classified documents after Judge Cannon prohibited Justice Department investigators from further reviewing the seized materials until such a point that the Special Master had been appointed.
See Honig’s CNN analysis on the matter here:
Yesterday was terrible for Donald Trump, but good for the rule of law
DOJ can move forward w/ investigating the 100+ classified docs—& perhaps even worse for him, his business is at risk in NY
I joined @CNN @DonLemon @DonLemonTonight w/ @eliehonig @TimNaftali to discuss pic.twitter.com/DJQExir4F0
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) September 22, 2022
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
