DOJ rips Florida judge a new one

Miss Jean Brodie meets Mr. Merrick Garland at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals

Judge Aileen Cannon may have thought she had granted the Department of Justice enough leeway to complete its investigation of Donald Trump for his mishandling and unsecure storage of classified documents at Mar a Lago, but in its appeal filed yesterday, the DOJ launched into a 29-page first-year-law lecture on the judge’s delusions about the law and her misunderstanding of the practicalities of conducting a national security investigation.

Cannon thought she was making two major concessions to the DOJ in her order issued on Thursday appointing Judge Raymond Dearie as special master.  Previously she had told the DOJ it could not use the 100 folders of classified documents in their criminal investigation of Donald Trump.  That order was specific and to the point.  In her Thursday order, however, the judge told the DOJ that her previous order did not “restrict the Government from conducting investigations or bringing charges based on anything other than the actual content of the seized materials; from questioning witnesses and obtaining other information about the movement and storage of seized materials, including documents marked as classified, without discussion of their contents.”

This is what is usually called playing chicken with the government by those practicing before the bar.  First, she tells the DOJ they can’t touch the classified documents or use them in any way whatsoever, even as they go about interviewing witnesses.  Then she comes along and appears to reverse that restriction by allowing the DOJ to use the classified documents but not their contents.  This is like telling a kid you can have your football back, but you can’t fill it with air and you can’t play with it.