Donald Trump‘s strategy of using delaying tactics to slowly chip away at his problems appears to be backfiring spectacularly as he clashes with the Department of Justice’s investigation into that trove of highly-classified documents he stashed at Mar-a-Lago.
The former president demanded a special master be assigned to his case to review the thousands of documents, despite the DOJ arguing there is “no role for a special master to play in executive privilege.”
Related: Trump’s latest defense is the joke that keeps on giving
Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon agreed to the request, and even approved team-Trump’s suggestion of Raymond Dearie for the role. Sounds like a major win, right?
Wrong.
The Daily Beast reports that Trump’s special master play “may have actually backfired and put him on a fast-track collision course with the federal government he once led.”
Even after Cannon threw Trump a bone and gave Dearie ample time to rule on the dispute over the documents, Dearie essentially said “no m’am” and has been working faster than anyone anticipated.
When Trump’s legal team refused to offer details into which documents the former president says he declassified (some with his mind, apparently), Dearie demanded they provide evidence on a short deadline. Then he hired an associate to speed things up even more.
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The semi-retired Brooklyn federal judge brought on retired magistrate judge James Orenstein to help him analyze the heap of documents faster. Orenstein will earn $500 an hour for the work — and Trump has been ordered to foot the bill.
“Trump’s request for a special master has already backfired, putting him in a position where he ended up declining, in writing, to state whether he declassified any documents,” commented former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti in Salon. “Now DOJ is using that to undermine his argument on appeal. Self-inflicted wound by Trump’s team.”
Democratic insider Jon Cooper tweeted: “Trump’s ‘Special Master’ delay Is already BACKFIRING big time. The unintended consequence is that it’s actually SPEEDING UP the review of the 11,000 documents that Trump illegally had in his possession at Mar-a-Lago.”
Trump’s “Special Master” delay Is already BACKFIRING big time. The unintended consequence is that it’s actually SPEEDING UP the review of the 11,000 documents that Trump illegally had in his possession at Mar-a-Lago.
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) September 26, 2022
And one commenter summed it up with a reference to Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer’s iconic “Delicious Dish” SNL skits:
Remember when King Con wanted a Special Master to delay things and Judge Cannon said sure! Then he even got the Judge he wanted! But Judge Dearie moved on trump like a bitch and told him to put up or shut up and is making him back fake claims of declassifying with his mind? pic.twitter.com/H3dTkwiFY7
— My Civic Duty 🇺🇲🇺🇦 (@soth4043) September 26, 2022
Schweddy balls, indeed.
RIGay
ARREST HIM ALREADY!!!!!
Freaking TRAITOR!!!
bachy
Special Master Dearie is taking no prisoners. Trump appointee Judge Cannon tried to throw a lifeline of delay, and it didn’t work – Dearie is the kind of judge who’s not going to tolerate wasted time. And he’s not going to be played.
He’s literally requiring Trump to cough up documented proof of all of his ludicrous, foot-dragging claims by Oct 28, which will actually serve to expedite the DOJ investigation. I read the Daily Beast report and was thrilled with this entirely unexpected development.
abfab
Blossom Dearie
Den
I doubt the Special Master can sing or play the piano as well as she did. But I sure like the way he is playing Trump! Hopefully play him all they way into a criminal indidctment. 🙂
Kangol2
@abfab, I love that you mentioned the late Blossom Dearie, who was a jazz singer of real talent. Raymond Dearie may or may not be a distant relative, but as Den says, he is playing Don the Con like a fiddle! The Con man thought he could con this Reagan Republican judge and he’s gotten nothing but songs he can’t bear to hear!
Den
Seems to me they have enough to arrest him already, as simply taking government documents home, classified or not, after his term is over is a crime. Though mishandling of classified documents is a bigger crime, and it is likely the DOJ wants as much against Trump as possible before pressing charges. And it is also conceivable they will wait until after the mid terms.
Prax07
Lock Him Up Already. Throw away the key so the traitor never gets out.
johncp56
LOL lock him up in Mar-A-Lardo
abfab
Mara Lago should somehow be returned to the Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation. It may take years for the HAZMAT crews to fumigate and de-louse the place.
abfab
Shmuck.
scotty
you’re being much too kind.
Dijonaise
The traitors thought they could push this out past the mid-terms, whelp, now it’s going to be front page news days before the election LOL!
scotty
so which one will finally break the camels back? pile on the stress and watch the orange turd have a stroke or fatal heart attack. when he finds out it was his whore melania who turned him in ought to do it, finally.
abfab
Vladimir Putin grants full Russian citizenship to Edward Snowden. The orange POS should be awaiting his invitation as we speak.
abfab
Be sure the ”slap in the face” isn’t too hard……all that orange stuff and blubbery skin will fall off into your hands.
GayEGO
Ha ha ha! Donnie continues to lose more than the election! Lock him up!
MISTERJETT
why are they just dragging this out? i hope they’re not looking for a reason NOT to charge him for his crimes. i’m just waiting and praying for the day we see real photos of him wearing handcuffs. i hope it’s sooner than later.
CNY1983
i guess were going to see the “riots in the streets’ those bitches have been threatening if they touch a comb-over hair on trumps head.
bring it bitch.
it should take a few minutes for the united states army to scrape them off those streets.
Jimmynj
Trump is a criminal piece of trash. He should be locked up for treason. Also, anyone who enabled this and his many other crimes should be tossed in prison. They should all rot there.