‘Calling His Bluff’: Latest Filing Shows Trump’s Hand-Picked Special Master Backfiring Say Twitter Pundits, Journos
L: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images R: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Journalists, political media figures, and other Twitter blue-checks say a new filing shows Team Trump’s selection of Judge Raymond Dearie as Special Master in the Mar-a-Lago probe is backfiring.
In a new filing Monday, former President Donald Trump‘s legal team refused a requirement — set forth in Dearie’s draft plan — that Trump’s team provide details about Trump’s claim to have “declassified” documents that were seized during the FBI in the search of Mar-a-Lago.
According to a letter filed by Trump’s legal team, they won’t comply because they say it would weaken their case against a “subsequent indictment,” and they also complained about the deadlines set forth in the draft plan.
Journalists and others are reading into the filing that Dearie — one of Team Trump’s two proposed candidates for Special Master — isn’t quite working out how they thought he would.
In her latest Trumpworld scoop, New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman also wrote that “The first filings before Judge Raymond J. Dearie, the special master, suggested that the Trump legal team was not happy with early signs of how quickly he appears poised to try to resolve the matter.”
Legal experts, attorneys, journalists, and others opined that Judge Dearie’s opening bid amounted to calling Trump’s bluff, advanced less charitable reasons Team Trump refused to comply with the requirement to detail Trump’s “declassification” claims, and otherwise noted signs of backfiring:
The Special Master is calling Trump’s bluff and already they’re objecting. https://t.co/ds4O2lVFa4
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) September 19, 2022
I’ve seen enough: Trump’s team miscalculated by asking for Judge Dearie to serve as Special Master. https://t.co/HaSJuvzchW
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) September 19, 2022
Trump’s team danced around whether he declassified any documents, presumably because he didn’t actually do so and they didn’t want to lie in a filing.
Now the Special Master wants an answer. I expect him to deem the documents classified unless Trump asserts that he declassified. https://t.co/HaSJuvzchW
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) September 19, 2022
Proof that Trump is just trolling the whole legal process. He wanted to dispute that the docs the gov says are classified are classified, something Loose Cannon bought into, but now doesn’t want to say if he “declassified” (but still wants access to the docs) https://t.co/NHLg7U0zWO
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) September 19, 2022
This is cuckoo: Trump asked for a special pre-indictment remedy, but he doesn’t want to answer questions because it is pre-indictment?
The reality is that he doesn’t want to lie in a declaration. https://t.co/8csjXTDGT8
— Teri Kanefield (@Teri_Kanefield) September 20, 2022
In Judge Dearie’s proposed plan, he wants Trump team to put up or shut up on “information regarding declassification.” Trump continues to say he declassified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago. This would require him to say so on the record under penalty of perjury. @fox5dc https://t.co/L8uHwycJUk
— Katie Barlow (@katieleebarlow) September 19, 2022
the Canadian girlfriend of legal defenses https://t.co/WbGbjKvNkq
— George Conway🌻 (@gtconway3d) September 20, 2022
Further indication that Trump’s declassification argument is bullshit. He won’t say it under oath! Judge Cannon should asked for this; kudos to Judge Dearie for doing so. https://t.co/630L4UuG4O
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) September 19, 2022
I don’t think Dearie, a seasoned judge, will stand for this nonsense. The right response on his part is either to insist or just to take the issue off the table, i.e. assume there was no declassification. It’s what Cannon should have done had she known something from shinola. https://t.co/rV1WWKY5ZN
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) September 20, 2022
It’s very possible that Trump’s team – which liked that Dearie is slow-moving and believed he would think just like they do and base decisions on distrust of the FBI – was projecting https://t.co/6NnmoC7RRS
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 19, 2022
Dearie calling bluff on day 1 https://t.co/Ocj7Ssdzf1
— Sam Stein (@samstein) September 19, 2022
When your own hand-picked special master calls your bluff https://t.co/h2jJhxH0MI
— Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) September 20, 2022
A reminder that it isn’t. https://t.co/5Fl1GNHOR9 https://t.co/Z34vfJzybk
— Philip Bump (@pbump) September 19, 2022
Thus far, Team Trump’s legal filings have contained no mention of the seized documents having been declassified in advance or otherwise, as Trump has claimed repeatedly in public.
