Judging Freedom - No More Special Master for Trump

Episode Date: December 2, 2022

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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, December 2nd, 2022. It's about 10 o'clock in the morning here on a bitter cold east coast of the United States, about 20 degrees out. Late last night, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which sits in Atlanta and has jurisdiction over the decisions of federal judges, excuse me, in Florida and Georgia, ruled against Judge Aileen Cannon, who had appointed a special master in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. Just to give you a little background, Judge Cannon is a federal judge who sits in West Palm Beach, Florida. When the FBI executed a search warrant on the home of former President Donald Trump, Trump sued the Justice Department. I know it sounds crazy. The case is called Donald J.

Trump versus the United States of America. And in that lawsuit, he asked for two things. He asked for the appointment of a special master to review all the documents that the FBI took. And he asked the court to stop the FBI and the Department of Justice from using any documents in a criminal investigation against him until the special master had reviewed the documents. The DOJ filed two appeals. One asked for the right to review the documents that were containing national defense secrets and a federal appellate court, same court but different judges, three months ago overruled the trial judge and said to the DOJ, yes, you can look at the um, at the documents that had been marked national defense information.

Then the DOJ filed the appeal, was ruled on last night and that appeal said get rid of the special master. We don't need a special master. You basically have interjected somebody in the midst of a criminal investigation and there isn't a defendant yet. We haven't even charged Donald Trump. We haven't even decided whether or not to charge him and the court can't tell us how to conduct a criminal investigation and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit agreed. Now I don't like to tout my own horn but when Judge Cannon appointed the special master I argued it was too little too late and it was interfering with the DOJ conduct of a criminal investigation. I made that argument from my iPhone in an off Broadway theater where I happened to be in Manhattan at the time Judge Cannon's decision

came down. The appointment of a special master is too little and too late. Trump's people asked for it too late. The government has already examined these documents for the judge to appoint the special master and then order that the government not use the documents is basically stopping the investigation. And the courts don't have the authority to stop an investigation, a criminal investigation midstream. Why don't the courts have the authority to stop a criminal investigation midstream? Because in the United States, under the Constitution, we have the separation of powers. The legislative branch writes the laws, the executive branch,

the president and all the people that work for him, enforce the laws. The judicial branch states what the laws mean. They can't interfere with the core functions of each other. Congress can't tell the president how to wage war, what military equipment to use. The president can't tell Congress what the tax rates should be. I'm just giving you examples. Another example is the courts can't tell the executive branch how to conduct a criminal investigation, whether the potential defendant is the former president of the United States or not. So the arguments that you heard me make from that theater, the clip that we just ran, are essentially the same rulings that came down last night. And I

must tell you that this appellate court really smacked down Judge Cannon, saying she didn't even have jurisdiction to hear this, much less to rule on it. And they took the case away from her by dismissing it. So where does that leave the former president? Well, you know, I know him well. He's a friend of mine, and I know the way he thinks. I am sure he's going to ask his lawyers to file an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, and I am sure that the Supreme Court of the United States. And I'm sure that the Supreme Court of the United States, Chris is here and he wants to get in the middle of this. Come on, Chris. And I'm sure that the Supreme Court of the United States, there he is. I'm sure

that the Supreme Court of the United States will do as it's done three times to former President Trump in the past four months, declined to get involved. Not personal as to Trump, but the Supreme Court does not get involved in decisions at the trial level at this early stage, particularly when there hasn't been an indictment and there hasn't even been a criminal complaint filed against him. More as we get it. Judge Nepal Tano and Chris for Judging Freedom. Chris.