Judging Freedom - Appeals Court Rejects Cannon ruling in Trump case

Episode Date: September 22, 2022

Trump suffers setback as appeals panel rejects Cannon ruling The panel ruled that the judge erred when she prevented federal prosecutors from using the 100 documents. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09... #TRUMP #DOJ #AppealSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Good evening everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here with a special breaking news judging freedom. Today is Wednesday, September 21st, 2022. It's about 8.30 in the evening on the east coast of the United States. I was just about to call it a day when my iPhone told me there was breaking news from the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. That is the federal appellate court that has jurisdiction over the decisions of federal district court judges, trial judges in, among other states, Florida. So the breaking news is that a panel of three judges in the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit sitting in Atlanta, Georgia, has reversed the decision of Judge Aileen Cannon, the federal district court judge sitting in West Palm Beach, Florida, with respect to whether or not the Justice Department can continue its criminal investigation of President Trump. also issued an order that prevented the Department of Justice from examining the 100 or so documents marked classified, confidential secret, top secret, and then there's the three or four different versions of top secret. So it had all those, all of them had the one or the other or

one of the three markings on them. Judge Cannon said the DOJ could not use them, could not examine them, could not use them in the further investigation of a prosecution of Donald Trump, and needed to turn them over to the special master. The Department of Justice then asked Judge Cannon to stay to stop that part of her order so that it could decide whether or not to appeal and in the interim continue to examine the documents. She declined to stay to stop the effect of that part of her order. Then the Justice Department filed an emergency appeal, and then the 11th Circuit ordered President Trump's lawyers to respond to the appeal, which they did. Just 45 minutes ago, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, a three-judge panel ruling unanimously, reversed Judge Cannon. This is not

the appeal of the appointment of the special master. This is the appeal of whether or not the Department of Justice could continue its investigation of whether or not Donald Trump and others working in concert with him committed federal crimes by gathering, by removing, and by obstructing the discovery of documents belonging to the United States of America, which arguably contained national defense secrets. When Trump's lawyers told Judge Cannon that, excuse me, when the DOJ told Judge Cannon that they had looked at the documents already and that the documents contained national defense information, Judge Cannon simply said, I don't believe saying there is no basis to believe that these are anything but national defense information documents. When the special master asked the

president's lawyers, show me some verification or proof that President Trump, while still president, declassified these documents, and Trump's lawyers declined to do so, the Court of Appeals in the 11th Circuit, the decision that just came down 45 minutes ago, said that tells them that the feds are correct, that the documents are either classified or national security secrets, national defense information, or all three. Finally, the court said, the former president has no possessory interest in these documents, whether they're classified or not, whether they contain national defense information or not. They are the property of the United States government. They are not his

property. This is a direct reversal of what Judge Cannon ruled and a harsh setback for President Trump. The public interest is in the orderly enforcement of the law, and that cannot occur when the Justice Department's hands are tied behind its back. Moreover, I'm paraphrasing from the opinion, trial judges, that's Judge Cannon, should only rarely interfere with criminal prosecutions and criminal investigations in the pre-indictment phase. Look, if Donald Trump is indicted and he's put on trial and the trial judge is Judge Cannon, she has enormous discretion as to what to allow the jury to hear and what to keep the jury from hearing for a variety of constitutional and statutory and case law reasons. But when it comes to the DOJ conducting

an investigation of someone that they haven't even charged yet, trial court has very, very, very narrow areas in which it may intrude upon that investigation. And the 11th Circuit just ruled. None of those reasons are present in this case. So where are we now? Judge Raymond Deary, the federal judge in Brooklyn, remains as the special master. The court that ruled tonight did not rule on that. The documents that the feds have seized, 100 of them, confidential, secret or top secret, which Judge Cannon ordered to be turned over to the special master and to former President Trump's lawyers, will not be turned over to the special master and former President Trump's lawyers. The president's argument that he has a possessory interest in the documents, meaning that he owns them, has been determined with finality that he does not own them, that they belong to the government, and he does not have an interest in possessing them. A significant setback for President Trump, a substantial victory for the Department of Justice, a serious criticism of Judge Cannon, and the case continues. Or as we get it, Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.