Why Trump Taking Mar-a-Lago Battle To SCOTUS Likely Won't Work

So now we want to move on to the latest development in the

battle

over the classified documents that former President Trump kept as his Mar-A-Lago home and club after leaving office. After leaving the White House, the former president filed an emergency petition asking the Supreme Court. to allow the special assistant to review the roughly 100 classified records that federal agents seized from the Florida estate in August, Trump's team specifically asked the high court to overturn part of a ruling issued last month by the 11th Court of Appeals. Circuit that allowed the Justice Department to resume using those classified documents as part of its criminal investigation to determine whether Trump or his advisers mishandled national security secrets or concealed or destroyed government records.

The Supreme Court judge assigned to the 11th Circuit is Justice Clarence Thomas. He ordered the Justice Department to respond to Trump's request by next Tuesday. Yeah, you know, Willie, the Trump team and Donald Trump are trying to defy legal gravity. They went to Forum Shopping in Florida and then there are 200 of them. Although I don't like to criticize federal judges. because I think for the most part, they do the best they can through their own worldview to rule on the law. We have a district court judge in South Florida who doesn't do that at all, in fact, he makes a fool of himself. 11th circuit and now of course even legally stepping on the Master special.

I have to believe that this is it, they are delays and they are having successful skills, but when you have a circuit, perhaps the most conservative circuit in the United States, the 11th Circuit that is a kind of rights answer to the 9th Circuit in the west , you can only delay it until the 11th Circuit overturns this district court judge in Florida and I know Clarence Thomas is at the top of the briefing and everything, but at the end of the day they're going to have to convince. I think a very skeptical Supreme Court will reverse the most conservative circuit in the United States.

I don't think it's going to happen. Yes, the Trump team went to the forum to shop the 11th Circuit. She said there is no sale and now she has Judge Cannon still meddling with the special master she appointed saying wait a minute, this is not going the way it was supposed to. go so now you have Donald Trump we surely know him thinking well look I named him. Three of those judges owe me a favor. Let's take this all the way to the Supreme Court and see what they can do for me. Let's bring in former federal prosecutor and top FBI official, Chuck Rosenberg.

Chuck, good morning. So what do you think of this? The last motion, trying to take this all the way to the Supreme Court, is a dead end. Well, this probably isn't going to

work

out for Mr. Trump in the end. Willie, let me explain why, first, there is no requirement that the Supreme Court make the decision. In this case, the issues are quite narrow and quite modest and, frankly, somewhat uninteresting, at least from a technical-legal point of view. Number two Willie, even if they take the case, there is no guarantee that Trump will win and then third, even if they take the case and Trump wins.

We're really just talking about a process for reviewing documents that will ultimately end up in the hands of the people who need it. The government is conducting the investigation. It's pretty limited, pretty modest, and I think in the end Joe's instincts are right. I don't often see the Supreme Court overturn a conservative 11th Circuit on this pretty narrow question, so Chuck certainly Trump knows that Trump's team knows the geography and knows that this would end Clarence Thomas. He was hoping you could talk to us a little. about the role he could play here and we must reiterate that he was the only vote in the Supreme Court against the efforts there with documents before we must also note, of course, that his wife Jeannie Thomas reiterated last week that she believes that the 2020 election was stolen and We know she spoke to the Jerry 6 committee about her efforts to overturn the results in Wisconsin and Arizona.

What do you think about this? Is there any chance he will bow to public pressure and recuse himself? Well, let me take the first part first everyone. of Supreme Court justices and you know there are nine who oversee different parts of the country for emergency matters. Judge Thomas is assigned to the 11th Circuit, which includes this litigation we're talking about, Jonathan, but I don't think Judge Thomas is going to rule on his own in any case, the Supreme Court would get involved, if someone gets involved, the Court Supreme as a whole would get involved, and again, I think there's a pretty good chance they'll refuse to hear the matter altogether if he recuses himself.

You know, it's an interesting question, right, his wife obviously denies the elections, they maintain that they have separate lives and opinions when it comes to their professional

work

and I give credence to that, but it does raise a question about appearance, right? Do you want judges and magistrates to recuse themselves when there is a real conflict, say a financial interest in the outcome of litigation, that is not the case here, but often judges step aside when it seems like a conflict that is up to them , no one can force Judge Thomas to impeach, but given the questions that have been raised, it is something that he should think about, yes, you know, the thing is, of course, although this does not concern the election, it concerns to the classified documents or to the documents themselves, so it is very

likely

that it will not do that.

I just want to emphasize, Chuck. Although how thin Donald Trump's legal ice is, here he is fighting right now, he is not even fighting a central issue, he is fighting something that should be a basic part of his allegations, which is that these documents were declassified, that has been his argument, the Special Master. He said, okay, put up or shut up if you declassified it, tell us when you declassified them, right, this is, this is not, this is not a massive moment of Perry Mason saying, okay, you declassified it, okay, tell us yes, and They say no, we're not.

I'm going to tell you right here and they're actually fighting and I can't even believe the special teacher was so embarrassed to say oh wait, no, no, no, they don't have to tell you if they would be graded or not. and it's fascinating because, as you know, look at the statute, the classification status at the end is not even going to determine whether you're charged or not, yeah, that's a good point, Joe is right, one of the statutes in question, one of The statute on which the search warrant was based was the Espionage Act passed in 1917.

We did not have classified documents in 1917, the classification system emerged after World War II in the 1950s, so in the end It doesn't matter, although the important thing and I don't want people to lose sight of this is that the government, in doing its damage assessment right now today tomorrow, can still use the classified information that it sees from home to keep the work going and that It's important, but you're absolutely right. when a judge asks you a question it's not the same as pontificating on television like I'm doing now you have to answer the question you have to answer the question and so when the judge wants to know whether or not these documents were really Mr.

Trump declassified and his team have refused to answer that is the fundamental basic question, so, on the one hand, it does not matter, in the end the case will not depend on the classification status of the documents. On the other hand, I think they didn't answer the question. It's quite insightful Hi Joe, can I add this? um, which I think is important, but not directly on this issue. I love the opening of your program. I'm a big baseball fan, but you also have to thank Albert Pujols, who will finish this season and his career number two of all time in runs batted in is number four of all time and home runs, we certainly will and that's okay, and By my count, he's actually third only to Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth, so should I do it?

Stay another season and beat Ruth 714. Oh, you know, it's a great question, you know, I'm a big fan of Albert Pujols. I have always admired him. He has said that this is his last season and that he will not return. respect and honor, I don't think he has anything else to prove, you know, one of the great players of all time, incredible.