In
the
world’s
least
surprising
plot
twist,
the
Justice
Department
has
withdrawn
its
appeal
to
the
Eleventh
Circuit
in
the
stolen
documents
case.
And
—
don’t
stop
the
presses!
—
Trump’s
henchmen
Walt
Nauta
and
Carlos
De
Oliveira
have
no
objection.
This
turn
of
events
became
inevitable
on
November
5,
when
Trump
won
the
election.
But
it’s
an
exceptional
fuck
you
in
light
of
everything
that
happened
in
the
past
three
weeks.
To
refresh:
Trump’s
favorite
jurist,
Judge
Aileen
Cannon
of
the
Southern
District
of
Florida,
used
the
pending
appeal
as
justification
to
bury
half
of
Special
Counsel
Jack
Smith’s
final
report.
Her
theory
was
that
the
report
could
not
be
released,
even
in
camera,
to
the
leaders
of
the
House
and
Senate
Judiciary
Committee,
lest
its
conclusions
leak
and
damage
the
integrity
of
the
trial.
Of
course,
there
was
never
going
to
be
a
trial.
Judge
Cannon
dismissed
the
case
last
summer
on
the
theory
that
special
counsels
are
somehow
illegal
—
a
conclusion
which
managed
to
elude
every
other
jurist
who
examined
it,
including
the
ones
at
One
First
Street.
That
dismissal
was
on
appeal
to
the
Eleventh
Circuit,
which
would
appear
to
divest
the
trial
court
of
jurisdiction.
But
lack
of
jurisdiction
has
never
stopped
Judge
Cannon
before!
The
Eleventh
Circuit
declined
to
intervene
to
stop
the
special
counsel
from
publishing
Volume
1,
which
dealt
with
the
election
interference
case,
or
from
sharing
Volume
2
with
Congress.
But
the
appeals
court
refused
to
tell
Judge
Cannon
to
knock
it
off,
so
she
dutifully
dove
on
the
grenade.
On
the
Friday
before
Trump’s
inauguration,
she
held
a
hearing
—
complete
with
oral
argument
by
amici,
natch
—
before
deciding
that
release
of
the
report
would
compromise
the
cases
of
poor
Nauta
and
De
Oliveira.
But
that
decision
came
after
Trump
was
safely
sworn
in,
at
which
point
the
prospect
of
anyone
seeing
that
report
was
functionally
nil.
Acting
Attorney
General
James
McHenry
fired
a
dozen
experienced
prosecutors
who
worked
on
the
special
counsel
investigation,
writing
“Given
your
significant
role
in
prosecuting
the
President,
I
do
not
believe
that
the
leadership
of
the
Department
can
trust
you
to
assist
in
implementing
the
President’s
agenda
faithfully.”
(Is
the
Justice
Department
supposed
to
be
“implementing
the
President’s
agenda
faithfully?”)
Ed
Martin,
the
interim
US
Attorney
for
DC,
is
now
investigating
the
January
6
prosecutors
for
charging
so
many
defendants
with
obstructing
an
official
proceeding
under
18
USC
§
1512,
calling
it
the
“great
failure
of
our
office,”
and
dubbing
his
quest
“Project
1512.”
Martin,
a
former
Trump
PAC
official
who
marched
on
the
Capitol
on
January
6,
seems
unbothered
by
the
fact
that
every
trial
judge
but
one
agreed
with
the
DOJ’s
interpretation
of
the
law,
and
upwards
of
100
defendants
were
convicted
by
juries
under
it.
And
no
one
expects
Pam
Bondi
to
concern
herself
much
with
28
CFR
§
600.9
and
its
mandate
that
“The
Attorney
General
will
notify
the
Chairman
and
Ranking
Minority
Member
of
the
Judiciary
Committees
of
each
House
of
Congress”
of
the
special
counsel’s
declination
decisions,
along
with
an
explanation.
She’ll
probably
be
too
busy
indicting
Jack
Smith
for
malicious
jaywalking
and
cutting
Trump
a
$100
million
check
in
his
tort
suit
against
the
DOJ
for
the
“illegal”
judicially
authorized
search
of
Mar-a-Lago.
Dismissing
the
appeal
means
the
DOJ
is
now
stuck
with
Judge
Cannon’s
fakakta
precedent
on
special
counsels.
It’s
a
small
price
to
pay
to
blow
up
the
last
vestiges
of
accountability
for
the
man
who
tried
to
mount
a
coup
to
stay
in
power.
The
Trump
administration
can
always
ignore
the
ruling
when
they
want
to
appoint
a
special
counsel
to
prosecute
Jack
Smith
—
they’re
certainly
not
averse
to
ignoring
laws
and
precedents
as
the
situation
requires.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.