You CANNOT Overstate What A Shitshow This "Case" in Florida Is

We have our special master!

In a... uh... theft case... not involving attorney-client privilege or executive privilege or anything else special masters deal with...

{sigh}

This is all so goddamned stupid. https://t.co/4t2vgi5ex9

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 13, 2022

First, it should have been tossed out as completely failing to state a cognizable, even colorable (term of art, move along) claim. Any other judge in the country (practically) would have done just that, simply to not waste time on it (federal judges are very busy people).

I have worked *extremely* complicated criminal cases, from first-degree murders to armed robberies to felonious sexual assaults to financial crimes cases and other types of cases in which documents are at the center of everything.

And let me tell you what the Mar-a-Lago case is:

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 13, 2022

I don't have extensive criminal experience, or even extensive legal experience, and I have lots of time on my hands. But I couldn't be bothered to read the pleadings in this case, either. The plaintiff's pleadings barely qualify as such, and the defense has to do double-work just to treat them seriously (or even interpret them in a way they can be responded to in a court of law).

There is—I can’t emphasize this enough—nothing complicated about this case besides the political consequences and implications of it, which every lawyer in America took an oath not to consider when they became a lawyer (and that includes judges).

So the whole thing is sickening.

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 13, 2022

Precisely. This isn't complicated. "Classified" or not, doesn't matter. It's not even a red herring, because it's not even a thing.

Can we stop talking about Trump’s claimed declassification? It’s like if he claimed that the documents were taken by his imaginary friend Burt and we spent a ton of time discussing why Burt did it.

It doesn’t exist. It didn’t happen. It’s not a thing. And it’s irrelevant.

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) September 1, 2022

It's all pretty much this:

This is the challenge that I and other legal analysts have had since Trump filed his crazycakes lawsuit. The problem is that Loose Cannon continues to indulge Trump's contradictory and nonsensical arguments, so we all end up in the legal Twilight Zone discussing them https://t.co/qIM3PypIs7

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) September 13, 2022

Even Rod Serling has already left the building. Because this is simply the state of this "case":

There are no attorney-client privilege issues here. There are no executive privilege issues here. The defendant is dead to rights and has no plausible defense. Under normal circumstances plea negotiations would’ve begun immediately, and prison time would be a given to both sides.

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 13, 2022

And don’t tell me about this being the first case of its kind involving a President of the United States. Had Trump gone to Fifth Avenue as he once promised and gunned down a bunch of innocent civilians, would that make the resultant homicide cases *legally* interesting? Hell no.

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 13, 2022

But the other reason it seems we have to talk about it is that the federal judiciary in Florida apparently corrupt, and will openly treat a very rich and very powerful and very famous white male politician in a way that it wouldn’t treat anyone else.

And it’ll do so unabashedly.

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 13, 2022

I wouldn't expand this to the "federal judiciary in Florida," considering Judge Middlebrooks just handed Trump his ass in a fashion Judge Cannon could certaily learn from.

One last thought.

It is true that in any case in which documents are seized, some documents not related to the investigation may be accidentally taken. These are returned *as a matter of course* (e.g., Trump’s passports).

If the defendant thinks some items were not returned...

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 13, 2022

...personally review the *handful* of documents answering to that description (and indeed it would only be a handful of documents).

There would be no special master, no delay of the criminal investigation. None of the abject, embarrassing BS we are seeing in the Mar-a-Lago case.

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 13, 2022

Special masters are for cases that look nothing like this one—for instance when the office of a defendant’s attorney is searched. Trump has yet to even make the argument—because he could never make it—that he had a right to retain classified documents in his home post-presidency.

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 13, 2022

As I said: a shitshow.

Kind of surprised he didn't try designating the White House his personal property to avoid the eviction. https://t.co/7Hc4AVjrXZ

— Schooley (@Rschooley) September 13, 2022

Why the judge isn't throwing this all out sua sponte is simply beyond me.