You can't have your cake and eat it too

Update on the special master: It did not go well for Trump today

Judge Raymond Dearie in his Brooklyn courtroom

That is what Judge Raymond Dearie told Trump’s lawyers today when they objected to his demand that they submit a sworn affidavit attesting to any actions Trump had taken to declassify the 100 folders of top-secret documents the government is seeking permission to use in its criminal investigation of Trump.  Judge Dearie pressed Trump’s lawyers repeatedly on whether Trump had actually declassified the documents Trump removed from the White House and took with him to Mar a Lago.  The meeting, held today in Dearie’s court in Brooklyn, was supposed to address the schedule he proposed for reviewing the 11,000 documents and other materials Trump removed from the White House when he left office on Jan. 20, 2021.

Instead, the session devolved into a lengthy back-and-forth between the judge and Trump’s attorneys over Trump’s repeated claims that he had declassified the secret documents seized by the FBI during its August search of his hotel/club/residence in Palm Beach, Florida.