Reading journalistic accounts of Trump's legalistic headaches has become a favorite pastime of millions; the giggles, they just keep coming. And this latest burlesque may be the funniest yet.
In a unanimous ruling yesterday by a three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit (Atlanta) — all three judges Republican appointees; two of them, Trump's — the former president got shot down again.
For three months he did manage to impede the Justice Department's investigation of his illegally harbored national security secrets, thanks to the freakiest of legal reasonings by one pixilated district court judge, Florida's very own Aileen Cannon. But no longer.
Toward her, the appeals court was properly brutal. She had elevated an out-of-office chief executive — that is, a returned, everyday American citizen — to the judicial status of an untouchable. This court was having none of it.
"The law is clear," wrote the judges. "We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so." The "we" would be you, Aileen.
She meddled where she should never have gone, they continued in their ruling. The law of the land "appl[ies] no matter who the government is investigating. To create a special exception here would defy our nation’s foundational principle that our law applies 'to all, without regard to numbers, wealth or rank.'"
The judges had yet more to say about Ms. Cannon's flaky intrusion. "It is indeed extraordinary for a warrant to be executed at the home of a former president — but not in a way that affects our legal analysis or otherwise gives the judiciary license to interfere in an ongoing investigation."
And with that, Special Master Raymond J. Dearie was out of a job. Which he is probably thankful for, since he too recognized "Judge" Cannon's ill-placed authority. The question now is, will Trump appeal?
Ordinarily the question would be a no-brainer. Trump always appeals. But, this time his poor beleaguered attorneys might mutiny.
As The Times notes: "[Trump] had already asked the Supreme Court to overturn an earlier ruling by the appeals court that excluded 103 documents marked as classified from Judge Cannon’s review, but the justices" — again, his own justices — "rejected his request without any noted dissents." Ouch.
One doubts that this court would issue a stay of its ruling, allowing Trump to waste more time in approaching the highest court with another idiotic appeal. That would undo his reason for appealing, so why bother? Than again, this is Donald Trump we're talking about — a scofflaw born with a tarnished silver lawsuit in his mouth.