Special Master to Review Mar-a-Lago Documents

A federal judge ordered the appointment of a special master to review the sensitive documents ...

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A federal judge ordered the appointment of a special master to review the sensitive documents seized at Mar-a-Lago. Orin Kerr, law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, joins Sarah to break down the ruling. Then, Sarah is joined by Thomas Lee, former associate chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court, for another discussion of corpus linguistics.

Show Notes:

–A Corpus Linguistic Analysis of ‘Foreign Tribunal’

–Corpus Juris Advisors

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  1. Avatar photo
    Finlie Brezter

    How about "Executive Courtesy"?

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    JohnF

    I enjoyed the first guest today. I'd like to hear from him again. Hopefully, he'll be given more time to speak. next time.

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    George.Skinner

    I think more scrutiny needs to be applied to how and why Judge Cannon was appointed. It's interesting not only that Trump sought her out for this case (and received a bizarrely favorable ruling), but it wasn't the only time they'd done that. A federal judge today dismissed Trump's lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and others over Russia collusion allegations in a rather withering opinion. The ruling noted that Trump had filed the case in the Fort Pierce district division of the district, where the only judge was Judge Cannon. It seems like Trump's team thinks they're going to get better treatment from Judge Cannon - why is that? Is it simply Trump's transactional view of the world again? ("I gave you a judicial appointment, so obviously you'll do me favors in return!") Or, do they have other reason to believe that she's going to be a sympathetic ear? She was young and relatively inexperienced. What brought her to the attention of the Trump team as a potential judge and made them advocate for her?

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  4. Ben P

    Great episode!

    A humble request regarding advertisements: I didn't enjoy the episode starting with the loud and abrasive sound of a buzzsaw; I had it on in the car and I just about jumped in my seat. When I listen through the website there are no ads; I forgot that I get the ads version on Spotify and damn that was a jolt. Hoping the next one starts with a human voice or music or something that fades in.

    That, or I remember to listen via the website.

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  5. Michael.Mcchesney

    I would like to nominate former U.S. Attorney and Associate Attorney General Rudy Giuliani to be the special master to review the Trump documents. Unless of course a special master needs a valid law license. Giuliani's law licenses from NY and DC were suspended pending disbarment proceedings. I'm obviously kidding, but I have to wonder if Trump's team will put Giuliani on their list of potential special masters. Trump clearly values loyalty and Giuliani has been loyal. Also incompetent, but loyal. Maybe Rudy will be his choice for Attorney General in 2025.

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    Marc Frischhertz

    Hey Sarah, the Judge is bonkers and biased and frankly it’s an ignorant opinion.

    How exactly does a special master address executive privilege claim against the executive branch? And following IRAC doesn’t make it a “real” opinion.

    Sarah you are obscuring the issue. The issue isn’t competing claims of executive privilege, because it is all within the executive branch. Your statement of the judge’s position makes no sense.

    Even if Trump has executive privilege, how does that prevent the executive branch from looking at the documents?

    She is trying to give Trump time. Please give me the constitutional the

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  7. Aaron

    To the extent that a former president has the power to assert executive privilege over documents he indisputably took illegally, against a current executive, why would the current executive not have at least equal power to take the very same documents back and assert their own executive privilege ?

    Also, I can imagine EP extending to privileged communications of presidents even after they leave office, but I can't understand how it can logically extend to government products and knowledge (classified documents). otherwise all living presidents would be permitted to compete over government property.

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    Pastorfbt

    DOJ is appealing. Need an emergency pod!

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    Azlefty

    Sarah, this was super interesting. One thing really confused me. If I understood correctly, Prof. Kerr said he had never heard of the strategy to bring a civil complaint in order to get a different judge than the original magistrate. I was trying to figure out why the district court would permit such an unusual strategy, and I came up with these possibilities, and please forgive my layperson's non-legal terminology:

    (1) a request like that would normally be dismissed before it would ever make it into the types of court documents such as appeals and supreme court decisions that Prof. Kerr would normally come across, but in this case the district court was so stacked in Trump's favor that it allowed this request; or

    (2) it is a truly novel legal strategy, in which case (a) why hadn't any other defense attorneys thought of this in the history of criminal defense law and (b) Trump's legal team deserve more credit than they seem to be receiving.

    Or maybe there is another reason I hadn't considered. Can anyone here provide some insight?

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    1. GregS

      I'm guessing that, much like appealing directly to the Supreme Court instead of waiting for circuit and appeals courts to rule, this was a tactic that in the past would have been laugwd out of court, or would have reliably resulted in undesirable outcomes for the petitioner.
      Trump succeeded because the judge was beholden to him, afraid of the MAGA blowback, afraid of the effects on a future judicial career (which will necessarily rely on remaining in the good graces of republican politicians), or is a moron who happens to know how to write opinions with citations.
      Sarah seems to be going with the moron explanation. She points out that this wasn't written in crayon snd had citations and everything! And then says that it was wrong about everything. So I guess its the "moron that knows the format" explanation.

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    Jon McKinney

    Typically, I feel a little dumb when I listen to AO, this episode made me feel really dumb.

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