(THU 9/1/22)

Scroll down for “DOJ Court Filing Excerpts” below the Alaska special election news item…

Donald J. Trump’s attorneys … argued Wednesday in a 19-page court brief that the Justice Department is “trampling” on the former president’s rights, Politico reports, and demanded an independent review of FBI-seized materials. Trump’s attorneys “sidestepped” prosecutors’ claims of obstruction of justice in the case and avoided the question of whether the ex-prez declassified the documents found at Mar-a-Lago, according to the website. 

U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon is due to announce her decision on a "special master" assigned to review the documents seized Thursday, NPR reports.

Meanwhile: Trump attorneys Christina Bobb and Evan Corcoran are “facing scrutiny” over their communications with the DOJ as witnesses or targets in the criminal investigation The Guardian reports, after they made representations in a June 3 interaction by making claims about complying with a grand jury investigation that turned out to be false.

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Biden's address ... President Biden is scheduled to address the nation 8 p.m. Eastern time Thursday from Philadelphia on the "extremist threat" to American Democracy.

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Meanwhile, in Alaska … Democrat Mary Peltola beat Republican Trump endorsee/former governor/veep candidate/preternatural MAGA-hatter Sarah Palin to win a special ranked choice election for the state’s single House seat (per Roll Call). Peltola, an abortion rights and gun rights supporter, fills the rest of Republican Rep. Don Young’s term for the end of the year, and becomes the first Alaska native elected to Congress. She faces Palin, plus another Republican, Nick Begich III, and possibly Libertarian candidate Chris Bye in another ranked choice election November 8, to serve a full two-year term. 

Best way to honor Gorbachev ... Russian President Vladimir Putin will "pay tribute" to Mikahail Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader who earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, AP reports, but will not attend his funeral. Gorbachev, a key figure in ending the Cold War as he dismantled the Soviet Union, who died Tuesday age 91, will be buried in Moscow's Novedevichy cemetery next to his wife, Raisa.

--Todd Lassa

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DOJ Court Filing Excerpts (WED 8/31/22)

Filing excerpts from the Justice Department’s 36-page court filing on the FBI’s seizure of sensitive documents August 8 at Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate:

“Appointment of a special master to review materials potentially subject to claims of executive privilege would be particularly inappropriate because binding Supreme Court precedent forecloses Plaintiff’s argument that review of these materials by personnel within the Executive Branch raises any such privilege concerns. Furthermore, appointment of a special master would impede the government’s ongoing criminal investigation and -- if the special master were tasked with reviewing classified documents -- would impede the Intelligence Community from conducting its ongoing review of the national security risk that improper storage of these highly sensitive materials may have caused and from identifying measures to rectify or mitigate any damage that improper storage caused. Lastly, this case does not involve any of the types of circumstances that have warranted appointment of a special master to review materials potentially subject to attorney-client privilege.”

**Filling expert on what was found during the legal August search

“Once in a secure government setting, the FBI conducted a preliminary review of the documents contained in the Redweld envelope (1). That preliminary document review revealed the following: 38 unique documents bearing classification markings, including 5 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL, 16 documents marked as SECRET, and 17 documents marked as TOP SECRET. Further, the FBI agents observed markings reflecting sensitive compartments and dissemination controls. Counsel for the former president offered no explanation as to why boxes of government records, including 38 documents with classification markings, remained at the premises nearly five months after the production of the fifteen boxes and nearly one-and-a-half years after the end of the administration.”

(1) Redweld envelope:

“On June 3, 2022, three FBI agents and a DOJ attorney arrived at the Premises to accept receipt of the materials. In addition to counsel for the former President, another individual was also present as the custodian of records for the former President’s post-presidential office. When producing the documents, neither counsel nor the custodian asserted that the former president had declassified the documents or asserted any claim of executive privilege. Instead, counsel handled them in a manner that suggested counsel believed that the documents were classified: the production included a single Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape.” (Emphasis added.)