Friday Round Up! 6/16/2023

How much havoc can Judge Loose Cannon wreak on Special Counsel Jack Smith's case? A lot.

The main news this week was the assignment of the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, which was filed in the Southern District of Florida, to Judge Aileen Cannon. Or as I like to call her, Loose Cannon. Judge Cannon was the one who, last fall, exercised “equitable jurisdiction” to entertain an unprecedented claim made by Trump’s lawyers that somehow the Justice Department’s search of Mar-a-Lago required the appointment of a special master to review the seized documents and identify which ones were covered by executive privilege. Even though Trump was no longer president and could not assert executive privilege, and even though any document over which executive privilege existed would by definition belong to the government. The whole thing made no sense, which is basically what the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said when they benchslapped Cannon and said that her exercise of jurisdiction in the case amounted to an abuse of discretion. Yeah, so her.

There’s an argument to be made that Cannon is, at least, a devil you know — and one who Trump can’t claim is out to get him — and that now her rulings will be under a microscope. And, given that this case involves the Classified Information Procedures Act, many of her rulings can be appealed immediately. But in this week’s It’s Complicated podcast, we discuss how Cannon could wait to strike in a way that can’t be checked by the appellate court. (CAUTION: This episode contains highly disturbing hypothetical, worst-case legal scenarios that may keep you up at night.)

My pieces this week:

• My explainer for Cafe Insider on The “Clinton Sock Drawer”: A Smart-Sounding Defense for Dumb People. (I also did a video explainer here on Substack in case you missed it)

Noteworthy clips from this week:

I was basically strapped to my dining room chair on Tuesday for Trump’s arraignment. Just a sampling of my clips from on ABC News Live throughout the day:

I also love that ABC News brings me in to discuss non-Trump stuff — like the Supreme Court decisions which are being handed down each week. This year’s term is especially historic, as there are a number of issues on the docket which bring into question years of established jurisprudence. One of those, which involved a challenge to Congress’ authority to regulate adoptions under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, and also claimed that treating Native American children differently in the adoption process violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, was decided this week. The Court didn’t depart from its established jurisprudence, but the law is not out of the woods yet:

Upcoming Events:

• Zoom Office Hours, Tuesday, June 20, 9-10 a.m. ET (please note the date changed from what I posted last week due to a scheduling conflict) Zoom link will be sent to paid members at 7 a.m. ET

• Wine & Fries members event, Sunday, June 25, 6-8 p.m. EDT: Introduction to the Enneagram. I’m super excited to do this workshop! You can take a test to determine your type here, and we’ll go through the types and how to use the Enneagram to gain greater insight into yourself and others. Zoom link will be sent to founding members at 3 p.m. The session will be recorded and accessible to Wine & Fries members who are unable to make the live session

• Guest speakerDavid Pepper, Wednesday, June 28 at 4 p.m. EDT. Zoom link will be sent to paid subscribers at 1 p.m. and a recording will be posted on Thursday

Have a great week and hope to see many of you on Tuesday!