Some animals are more equal than others
We know because Judge Grant said so.
On Monday, Trump-appointed federal judge Aileen M. Cannon ordered the government to stop reviewing documents seized by the FBI last month from the former president’s Florida home, and she appointed a special master to review those documents. From NPR:
A special master is an independent third party, typically an attorney, appointed by the judge to review materials seized in a search for anything that may be protected from investigation by attorney-client privilege, or executive privilege as Trump is claiming.
In a 24-page decision, Judge Cannon wrote:
As a function of Plaintiff’s former position as President of the UnitedStates, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own. A future indictment, based to any degree on property that ought to be returned, would result in reputational harm of a decidedly different order of magnitude.
If we’ve learned anything from the past administration, it’s that the laws are different for you and I. George Orwell wrote about this in “Animal Farm,” in an allegorical examination of communism under Joseph Stalin.
And now we get to watch it in real time.
The two parties have until Friday to appoint a special master, unless government lawyers are successful on appeal. But if a special master is appointed, I hope it’s me — or maybe a better choice would be former president Barack Obama or former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. Do they have the security clearance to serve in this capacity? I don’t, though I’d be willing to do it, anyway.
But because Donald Trump was president, his reputation gets special protection? That a judge seems more concerned about protecting Trump’s reputation than does the actual former president is simply the rotted mustard on a shit sandwich.
This judge was appointed AFTER 45 lost! Many legal experts have question her ruling. Coincidentally, Heather Cox Richardson's column today is about this ruling and offers a bit of background on the make up of our courts shift to the hard right, thanks in large part to McConnell's finagling! This quote is most disconcerting: "Philosopher Jason Stanley of Yale University, best known for his 2018 book How Fascism Works, tweeted today: “Once you have the courts you can pretty much do whatever you want.” Elections matter and we see the consequences in real time as our democracy is endangered! If any of you are voting gQp you need a check up from the neck up?!?
The decision is stunning in its ignorance. DOJ isn't going to base its case on a "love" letter from Kim Jong-un to Trump -- although that's government property, too. And if he had personal "privileged" documents mixed in with the classified ones, maybe he should have taken better care to keep the personal documents somewhere else.
And to think I didn't take the bar exam because I thought it would be too hard.