Accepting such an argument would be “pure fiction,” the special counsel argued.
Special counsel Jack Smith, responding on Tuesday to the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case, urged her to reverse course on entertaining the idea that Trump had any personal ownership over the classified materials he has been charged with unlawfully possessing.
In a late-night filing replying to an order last month from Judge Aileen Cannon requesting proposed jury instructions that appeared to accept at face value what legal experts have argued is one of Trump’s most fringe defenses – that the former president had unchecked ability to claim all classified records as his personal property – Smith argued that accepting such an argument would not only be “pure fiction,” but “meritless and fatally undermined” by all the evidence gathered by the government as part of their case.
Among that evidence, according to Smith, are interviews with Trump’s own Presidential Records Act representatives and “numerous” high-ranking officials from the White House, none of which “had heard Trump say that he was designating records as personal,”
While I share your frustration, “doj will do nothing” makes no sense. You’re commenting on an article about the department of justice literally doing something, that’s what the article is about. They’re making more filings opposing her ridiculous questions. They made this one out of the blue, just demanding she make a decision on a bunch of pending questions she’s asked so they can appeal her probably dumb decisions. And the department of justice is the one bringing this criminal case in the first place, what do you mean “do nothing?”
The problem is she’s only telegraphed verbally and with the kinds of questions she’s asking for arguments on that she’s going to do something dumb to provide cover for Trump, but until she does the dumb thing and makes her decision there’s nothing for the department of justice to appeal. And even if they want to get her kicked off the case, which I suspect they do at this point even though that’s risky and delays things further, they need more evidence of her making dumb rulings to get that to happen. Until she actually makes the ruling and doesn’t just hint at doing something dumb, they’ve got nothing though. Point is, save your hatred for the Judge Cannon and the many other judges rated “not competent” by the American bar association that Trump and Republicans in the senate pushed through.