Everybody ran around with their hair on fire about this…
I’m no lawyer but?
I’d think there ARE ways for smart Justice Dept. lawyers to get around the judge’s effort to stall things….
There was a cache of stuff recovered….
The Government KNOWS what is missing….
The Government IS assessing the damage….
The last two should be presentable to a jury…..
The political clock is ticking….
The above would seem to me more than enough for a Grand Jury indictment…..
Any trial won’t be until next Summer ….
The actual contents or the government property in a legal sense is immaterial….
The law says an ex-President is just Joe Q Citizen…
There IS precedents from Nixon and Clinton and even Trump’s taxes….
I’ve said this again and AGAIN….
Attorney general Garland CANNOT back away from this…
To do so would help the judge and Trump and embolden the Trump effort to shield ANY and ALL his post actions under executive privledge immunity…
The below from a lawyer….
Donald Trump has a history of using questionable lawyers to his advantage. From the disbarred Roy Cohn to fixer (and felon) Michael Cohen, Trump used lawyers as a tool to expand his empire. As president, he used unethical lawyers like Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman to carry forward schemes to hold onto power. Even when those lawyers got into trouble, Trump has managed to avoid serious consequences.
But now Trump’s attorneys have managed to help him get into a legal jam the likes of which he has never faced. Whether out of incompetence or a desire to please their notoriously rules-averse client, they have committed a series of unconscionable errors that turned the government’s document recovery effort into an ongoing criminal investigation of the former president that could result in an unprecedented criminal indictment. Monday’s ruling by a judge agreeing with Trump’s request to appoint a third party to review the documents might look like a win, but it is a limited response to a catastrophe that they could have avoided….