Enhanced US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s challenge to the FBI search of his Florida home: reshaping the special master plan
Former President Donald Trump got another boost in his bid to challenge the FBI search of his Florida home, with US District Judge Aileen Cannon reshaping the plan put forward by the special master she appointed to review the materials seized at Mar-a-Lago last month.
Dearie showed himself to be less sympathetic to Trump’s claims than Cannon, who was confirmed by the Senate after the November 2020 election.
On Thursday, Cannon also pushed back the timeline for the review by at least a half-month, while making clear that additional litigation that Trump will have the chance to bring, after the special master process is finished, challenging the search will remain on her docket.
The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the department to resume using the classified documents, which may be the heart of the investigation.
The FBI searched and recovered thousands of additional government documents, including more than 100 with classified markings.
Cannon on Thursday rejected part of the special master’s plan that would have forced the former President’s legal team to back up his out-of-court claims that the FBI planted evidence.
Cannon said that the parties would make those matters known to the Special Master for appropriate resolution and recommendation to the court.
In another boost for Trump, Cannon said Trump’s legal team does not have to provide certain details about his executive privilege claims in the special master review.
The federal judge removed the special master’s proposed requirement that Trump, when asserting a document is covered by executive privilege, specify whether he believed that barred disclosure within the executive branch versus disclosure outside of it.
The Justice Department has argued that Trump’s executive privilege claims are especially weak because the materials were seized by the executive branch for an executive branch purpose, i.e. a DOJ criminal investigation.
A deposition on Donald Trump’s role in preparing the Trump Organization’s financial statements and the challenge of a state attorney general filed by the Department of Justice
In explaining the “modest enlargement” of the timeline, Cannon pointed to the issues the parties had faced in securing a vendor to digitize the seized materials for the review.
In a court filing this week, the department said that Trump’s team indicated that data hosting companies didn’t want to work with the former President. A bigger evidence collection is the issue for the Trump team.
Donald Trump Jr., who was compelled to give a deposition, has not publicly spoken of his role in preparing the company’s financial statements. His answers shed light on his potential defense to the allegations and he distanced himself from both the documents. In his testimony, based on the excerpts, his tone was plain-spoken, and his demeanor appeared casual.
The New York attorney general included excerpts from Trump Jr., former President Donald Trump and others in a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the Trump Organization from using fraudulent financial statements.
CNN has previously reported that the former President asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and squared off with New York Attorney General Letitia James at the start of the meeting. The excerpts reveal that Trump was asked a lot of questions and refused to answer some of them.
an assistant state attorney asked Trump a number of questions including if he was the president of the Trump Organization and if he had an agreement to make years of financial statements that were intentionally overvalued. He was questioned if he approved the methods used to value properties. To each question Trump replied, “same answer.”
The filing of the lawsuit on Wednesday did not go well for another lawyer for Mr. Trump, Christopher M. Kise. According to people who have knowledge of the matter, Mr. Trump’s legal team expressed concern that the Florida lawsuit could hurt their case in New York.
A year after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Trump Jr. began working at the Trump Organization in 2001 after taking a gap year. After working for a while in a low-level position, he started negotiating high-profile building projects, was named to one of the three trustees overseeing the company, and then became the president’s son. He stated that he now works in Florida.
A Tax Fraud Investigation into a Tax Litigation Case: What I Learned in Accounting 101, and What I Don’t
He said that he only knows what he learned during hisAccounting 101 college course.
“Well, I’m not an accountant, but that they are generally accepted,” he said when asked what he knew about GAAP. I think I could come up with something to cut down on time but I would be doing nothing to help ourselves.
Mazars USA, which was dropped as a Trump client earlier this year, included disclaimer language in its engagement letter to protect it against future liability, as suggested by Trump Jr. In the engagement letter, Mazars said the client, Trump, was responsible for the accuracy of the information in the financial statements.
It is odd after 30 years of doing each and every tax return, that it would be possible to do that. “The semantics of the language in the letter, I can’t tell if that was always the language from the engagement letters from 2011 and on, or did it become sort of a, let’s call it, you know, cover-your-ass language later on after 30 years of doing a tax return.”
“Those people would have more intimate understanding of the specifics of those things. And whoever was bringing me a document, if it was more accounting, it was probably from accounting. If it was more legal, it would be from legal. Do we really want to sign this document? Do you believe it to be honest and accurate?’ If they approved of it, they would have more knowledge than I do, so I would sign it.
When asked about a specific reference on a spreadsheet relating to 40 Wall Street, a Trump leased building around the corner from the New York attorney general’s office where the deposition took place, Trump Jr. switched into dealmaker mode.
I leased the building to you on your right shoulder. And I’d be remiss as a Trump to not point out the lovely real estate that sits right there He said that he gets to stare at all day.
“They’re not that down, they’re not that down at all,” said Trump Jr. “You know, I can still see probably about 30,000 square foot of a floor plate that – you know, have you thought about moving office buildings?:
The possibility of allowing federal officials to return to Trump’s property – likely with Trump’s own lawyers present – is just one option on the table as the Trump team grapples with how best to protect the former President from legal jeopardy. Sources familiar with the situation say that no firm decisions have been made by Trump lawyers, who are still deciding how to deal with the Justice Department.
According to conversations with Trump’s team as well as court filings the Justice Department said it believed that Trump didn’t follow a May subpoena and that more government records are still missing.
The FBI seized nearly 22,000 pages when they searched Mar-a-Lago, and some of Donald Trump’s inner circle are not convinced that there are any remaining government documents.
Even as his legal team is making an argument in court, that Trump’s records are his personal property, the approach comes even though he is using legal theories that the records are his personal property.
The person close to Trump said the former President wanted to move on and that the general belief of Trump World was that this is much ado about nothing.
At least some of the battle to secure their return has been playing out behind the scenes in a court proceeding that is under seal, according to people familiar with the situation. The DOJ may ask a judge to issue an order forcing the Trump team to work with them on another search.
Sources close to Trump said the former president has become more receptive to the approach being advocated by some of his lawyers, including Chris Kise, who joined his team after the FBI search in August. Kise had faced headwinds from Trump and some of his more aggressive advisers.
He has never proven that federal investigators planted evidence when they searched Mar-a-Lago, a claim he made at one point.
Trump and his associates are anxious for some relief from his legal troubles as the election nears and he wrestles with his next political move.
The complicating factors include Trump’s views on the document dispute. He initially claimed that his team had been fully cooperative with investigators and insisted on social media “ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK,” for documents to be returned. Trump has argued on social media and in court that the Mar-a-Lago documents are his property. I would like my documents back! the former President said in early October.
Christina Bobb had to find a new lawyer after signing an attestation that Trump team had conducted a “diligent” search and returned all documents with classified markings. Bobb, who was Trump’s custodian of records at the time, recently told federal investigators in a voluntary interview that the attestation had been drafted by another Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran, for her to sign. Bobb was rushed to Mar-a-Lago to sign the attestation, but she insisted on first saying her knowledge was based on the information provided to her.
Boris Epshteyn, the Trump Organization, and Greenberg & Garten: A Florida State Attorney’s Dilemma to Corcoran
Corcoran has insisted to colleagues that he does not believe he faces any legal risk and has not hired a lawyer, according to sources familiar with his situation.
Boris Epshteyn had his cellphone seized by the FBI, and has testified in a Georgia grand jury about the efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Donald Trump filed a lawsuit in Florida state court to stop New York from getting records from the trust that holds ownership of the Trump Organization.
Gerald Greenberg is a partner at Gelber, Schachter and Greenberg, a Florida law firm. There is no authority for a Florida court to interfere with a New York state law enforcement investigation.
Unable to persuade the Florida lawyers to stand down Wednesday, the Trump Organization’s general counsel, Alan Garten, then took aim at Mr. Epshteyn, blaming him in an email to Mr. Epshteyn and other lawyers for the filing of the suit, said the people with knowledge of the discussion. Frustrations with Mr. Epshteyn among some of Mr. Trump’s other aides and representatives have been brewing for months and boiled over with the new legal action.