Gilead
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Fig. 1. Department of Justice photograph of seized materials, reportedly partially redacted, via the Washington Post, August 31, 2022,[1] public domain.
An appeals panel does not seem at all favorably disposed towards Aileen Cannon’s ruling appointing a special master to stall the Department of Justice investigation of Donald Trump’s retention of documents[2] retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.[3] Indeed, the question of the moment seems to be whether they will 1) vacate or 2) overturn Cannon’s order.[4]
The common refrain is “you can’t predict a case from oral argument.” Um, this one you can. The only question is how fast [Donald] Trump will lose. He will lose badly. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an oral argument go worse for a litigant. And a shame it has taken so many months just to overrule Judge [Aileen] Cannon’s nonsense.[5]
Ronald Brownstein, “Why fewer states than ever could pick the next president,” CNN, November 22, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/politics/2022-preview-2024-presidential-election
Charlie Savage and Alan Feuer, “Court Appears Ready to End Special Master Review in Trump Files Inquiry,” New York Times, November 22, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/us/trump-special-master-review-mar-a-lago.html
Igor Derysh, “‘Goodbye Cannon’: Experts say judge’s controversial pro-Trump order doomed after ‘hostile’ hearing,” Salon, November 23, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/11/23/goodbye-cannon-experts-say-judges-controversial-pro-order-doomed-after-hostile-hearing/
Fig. 1. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,[6] fair use.
Laurel Wamsley, “Looking to leave Twitter? Here are the social networks seeing new users now,” National Public Radio, November 24, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/11/24/1139079748/leave-twitter-social-networks-mastodon-hive-post
Ukraine
Fig. 1. “Destroyed Russian military vehicles located on the main street Khreshchatyk are seen as part of the celebration of the Independence Day of Ukraine in Kyiv, August 24.” Photograph by Gleb Garanich for Reuters, August 24, 2022,[7] fair use.
It is true that neither Ukraine nor any other eastern European country are innocent of World War II-era pogroms against Jews. And these countries have erred in attempting to whitewash this history. But none of this justifies Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on a pretext of “de-Nazification.”[8]
Efraim Zuroff and Per Anders Rudling, “Russia’s ‘denazification’ lie and the whitewash of Roman Shukhevych,” Times of Israel, November 22, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/russias-denazification-lie-and-the-whitewash-of-roman-shukhevych/
- [1]Devlin Barrett, “Justice Dept. says Trump team may have hidden, moved classified papers,” Washington Post, August 31, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/31/trump-documents-removed-storage-room/↩
- [2]Igor Derysh, “‘Goodbye Cannon’: Experts say judge’s controversial pro-Trump order doomed after ‘hostile’ hearing,” Salon, November 23, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/11/23/goodbye-cannon-experts-say-judges-controversial-pro-order-doomed-after-hostile-hearing/; Charlie Savage and Alan Feuer, “Court Appears Ready to End Special Master Review in Trump Files Inquiry,” New York Times, November 22, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/us/trump-special-master-review-mar-a-lago.html↩
- [3]Jacqueline Alemany et al., “National Archives had to retrieve Trump White House records from Mar-a-Lago,” Washington Post, February 7, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/07/trump-records-mar-a-lago/; Farnoush Amiri, “National Archives: Trump took classified items to Mar-a-Lago,” Associated Press, February 19, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-national-security-9c1f6dca7e3e8073ee029604c8253a5c; Scott R. Anderson et al., “What We Do and Don’t Know About the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Search,” Lawfare, August 9, 2022, https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-we-do-and-dont-know-about-fbis-mar-lago-search; Devlin Barrett et al., “Mar-a-Lago search appears focused on whether Trump, aides withheld items,” Washington Post, August 9, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/09/trump-fbi-search-mar-a-lago/; Devlin Barrett et al., “FBI searched Trump’s home to look for nuclear documents and other items, sources say,” Washington Post, August 11, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/11/garland-trump-mar-a-lago/; Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey, “Agents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago seized 11 sets of classified documents, court filing shows,” Washington Post, August 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/12/trump-warrant-release/; Alex Leary, Aruna Viswanatha, and Sadie Gurman, “FBI Recovered Eleven Sets of Classified Documents in Trump Search, Inventory Shows,” Washington Post, August 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/fbi-recovered-eleven-sets-of-classified-documents-in-trump-search-inventory-shows-11660324501; Eric Tucker and Michael Balsamo, “Trump says FBI conducting search of Mar-a-Lago estate,” Associated Press, August 8, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-government-and-politics-9e8d683afe87389407950af7ccfdbdd6; Betsy Woodruff Swan, Kyle Cheney, and Nicholas Wu, “FBI search warrant shows Trump under investigation for potential obstruction of justice, Espionage Act violations,” Politico, August 12, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/12/search-warrant-shows-trump-under-investigation-for-potential-obstruction-of-justice-espionage-act-violations-00051507↩
- [4]Charlie Savage and Alan Feuer, “Court Appears Ready to End Special Master Review in Trump Files Inquiry,” New York Times, November 22, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/us/trump-special-master-review-mar-a-lago.html↩
- [5]Neal Katyal, quoted in Igor Derysh, “‘Goodbye Cannon’: Experts say judge’s controversial pro-Trump order doomed after ‘hostile’ hearing,” Salon, November 23, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/11/23/goodbye-cannon-experts-say-judges-controversial-pro-order-doomed-after-hostile-hearing/↩
- [6]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/↩
- [7]Reuters, “Ukraine puts destroyed Russian tanks on display in Kyiv,” August 25, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ukraine-puts-destroyed-russian-tanks-on-idUSRTSALV9Q↩
- [8]Efraim Zuroff and Per Anders Rudling, “Russia’s ‘denazification’ lie and the whitewash of Roman Shukhevych,” Times of Israel, November 22, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/russias-denazification-lie-and-the-whitewash-of-roman-shukhevych/↩