Most Viewed Videos
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has ruled in favor of one of former President Donald Trump’s special master picks, appointing Raymond Dearie to review the trove of documents seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
The Florida judge also denied the Department of Justice’s motion for a partial stay to allow DOJ continued access to at least 100 documents marked classified.
“The Court remains firmly of the view that appointment of a special master to conduct a review of the seized materials, accompanied by a temporary injunction to avoid unwarranted use and disclosure of potentially privileged and/or personal materials, is fully consonant with the foregoing principles and with the need to ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity under unprecedented circumstances,” Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, writes.
Last month, Trump’s team asked that an independent third party be placed in charge of reviewing the 11,000 seized documents to ascertain whether any were protected by executive privilege or attorney-client privilege when removed in the Aug. 8 search.
The Justice Department opposed the request, but when Judge Cannon ruled in favor of a special master, it agreed to Trump’s pick, 78-year-old Dearie, as an appropriate choice.
Judge Dearie is a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York and served as chief judge of the court from 2007 to 2011. He was appointed as a judge by Ronald Reagan in 1986.
He previously approved a warrant for the FBI to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page during the Russia investigation, though he is understood to have a stellar reputation and is highly regarded by Trump and his team.
Cannon gave the special master a Nov. 30 deadline to finish his review of the potentially privileged documents, which is more than a month after the DOJ’s request for an Oct. 17 deadline. She noted that date was “subject to modification if necessary as proposed by the special master.”
The extended deadline is likely to be a setback for the DOJ’s investigation into whether the former president unlawfully kept national defense records or hindered repeated attempts by the government to retrieve them.
The Justice Department has indicated it will appeal, which could see the case taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and as high as the U.S. Supreme Court. According to The New York Times, “top officials” were meeting Thursday night “to discuss the timing of their filing.”
In her 10-page ruling, Judge Cannon questioned the DOJ’s claims that the records it is attempting to review—in particular, 100 documents “marked as classified”—contain such urgent sensitive information that could place the country in peril and requests further review from the special master.
She said “there has been no actual suggestion by the Government of any identifiable emergency or imminent disclosure of classified information arising from Plaintiff’s [Trump’s] allegedly unlawful retention of the seized property.”
Instead, and “unfortunately” she said, “the unwarranted disclosures that float in the background have been leaks to the media after the underlying seizure.”
Cannon denied the DOJ’s request to exempt the 100 documents from the review and to lift restrictions on DOJ from using the classified materials seized during the search to further its criminal investigation into the handling of sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago.
She said she would not accept the DOJ’s brief that the documents remain classified as fact without a review from the special master and asked that he prioritize them first and “thereafter consider prompt adjustments to the Court’s Orders as necessary.”
The temporary ban, however, “does not restrict the Government from conducting investigations or bringing charges based on anything other than the actual content of the seized materials; from questioning witnesses and obtaining other information about the movement and storage of seized materials, including documents marked as classified, without discussion of their contents.”
Trump has asserted publicly that he declassified all the records before the FBI search.
“The Court does not find it appropriate to accept the Government’s conclusions on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party in an expedited and orderly fashion,” Cannon writes, noting “there are documented instances giving rise to concerns about the Government’s ability to properly categorize and screen materials.”
Cannon’s order appointing a special master says Trump must pay the full cost of the review, despite a previous plea from his lawyers to split the bill. “Plaintiff shall bear 100% of the professional fees and expenses of the special master and any professionals, support staff, and expert consultants engaged at the special master’s request,” the order reads.
She also said both parties “must fully cooperate with the Special Master in the performance of their duties but the court “reserves the right to remove the special master.”
Dearie has already accepted the role in a signed filing.
On Thursday, Trump warned of “big problems” if he was indicted over the mishandling of the documents, warning conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that there would be “problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before.”
“I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it,” he said.
Source Article from https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-pick-judge-raymond-dearie-as-special-master-in-mar-a-lago-case-by-judge-aileen-cannon
A thick haze hangs over Manhattan on Tuesday. Wildfires in the West, including the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, are creating hazy skies and poor air quality as far away as the East Coast.
Julie Jacobson/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Julie Jacobson/AP
A thick haze hangs over Manhattan on Tuesday. Wildfires in the West, including the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, are creating hazy skies and poor air quality as far away as the East Coast.
Julie Jacobson/AP
Smoke traveling from the Western wildfires is reaching all the way across the U.S., bringing vibrant red sunsets and moon glow to the East. But it’s also carrying poor air quality and harmful health effects thousands of miles away from the flames.
Large fires have been actively burning for weeks across the Western U.S. and Canada. Currently, the largest in the U.S. is the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, which has now burned more than 600 square miles of land and become so large it generates its own weather.
For days, Eastern states have been trapped in a smoky haze originating from the fires across the nation. Smoke has settled over major cities nearly 3,000 miles from the fires, including Philadelphia and New York, and even in the eastern parts of Canada.
It’s the second year in a row that smoke has traveled so far into the East. The sight has become normal during wildfire season as fires have become more intense, long lasting and dangerous because of climate change.
Julie Malingowski, an emergency response meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told NPR that smoke pushed high into the atmosphere at the location of the fires is now being pushed down onto Eastern states.
“We’re seeing quite a bit of smoke near the surface level across parts of the Eastern U.S.,” she said.
“Normally, as smoke moves further away from the active fire, the smoke tends to disperse into higher parts of the atmosphere, so it’s not as thick at the surface,” Malingowski said. But she said that this time an area of high pressure is pushing that smoke down toward the surface.
Air quality warnings spread across the East
The result has been a flurry of air quality warnings across Eastern states, including Connecticut and Maryland. The warnings range from orange to red — orange meaning sensitive groups are at risk of being affected, and red meaning all people living in the area are at risk.
Long-distance-traveling particulate matter is to blame. Microscopic particles called PM2.5 have been injected into smoke high into the atmosphere and have traveled with the wind to cities far away.
At 2.5 microns, the particles are small enough to enter human lungs. They worsen respiratory conditions, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and can interfere with oxygen exchange, says Sheryl Magzamen, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Colorado State University.
PM2.5 can be especially dangerous when poor air quality warnings are not associated with smoke from faraway fires, Magzamen told NPR.
“When that smoke is associated with a local fire, our research has actually shown that there are less hospitalizations and ER visits on average because people are protecting themselves from the smoke and fire,” she said. “However, if you’re far away from them … there’s not that same type of warning system, because you’re not in any danger because of the fire.”
Spires from the World Trade Center Oculus frame the setting sun, barely visible on Tuesday through a thick haze hanging over Manhattan. Poor air quality warnings have sprung up across the East due to smoke traveling in from Western wildfires.
Julie Jacobson/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Julie Jacobson/AP
Spires from the World Trade Center Oculus frame the setting sun, barely visible on Tuesday through a thick haze hanging over Manhattan. Poor air quality warnings have sprung up across the East due to smoke traveling in from Western wildfires.
Julie Jacobson/AP
Malingowski says the smoke is likely to stick around as long as the fires rage and the weather stays dry.
“As long as active fires are burning and high pressure remains across the central part of the United States, many locations will at least see some reduction of visibility in their environment east of the Rockies,” she said.
“Once fire activity decreases and precipitation reenters the picture for places that are receiving this reduction in visibility due to smoke, then that will help to mitigate smoke impacts,” she added.
Josie Fischels is an intern on NPR’s News Desk.
Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/07/21/1018865569/the-western-wildfires-are-affecting-people-3-000-miles-away