WTF Just Happened Today

Monday, September 12, 2022

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1/ Trump asked a federal judge to deny the Justice Department’s request to limit the role of a special master in its review of classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago as part of its criminal investigation. Last week, federal prosecutors – citing the risk of “irreparable harm” to national security – requested that District Judge Aileen Cannon stay the portion of her ruling blocking the government from reviewing about 100 documents with classification markings that were taken during the Aug. 8 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. In a 21-page filing, Trump’s lawyers called the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump “unprecedented and misguided,” and referring to the seized documents as “purported ‘classified records,’” they claimed that the government “has not proven” that the materials marked classified are actually still classified. Instead, they argued, Trump might actually have the right to keep the materials in his possession. (Washington Post / New York Times / Politico / Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / CNN / NBC News / ABC News)

• Trump told aides after his 2020 defeat that he would not depart the White House, insisting: “I’m just not going to leave.” To another aide Trump said: “We’re never leaving. How can you leave when you won an election?” (CNN / Vanity Fair)

2/ The Justice Department issued about 40 subpoenas seeking information about Trump and his associates related to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack. According to one subpoena, the department requested information about any members of the executive and legislative branches who may have taken part in planning or executing the rally, or tried to “obstruct, influence, impede or delay” the certification of the presidential election. The department also seized the phones of two top Trump advisers, Boris Epshteyn and Mike Roman. At least 20 subpoenas sent out were seeking information about several lawyers involved in the fake elector scheme, including Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman. Last week, Stephen Miller, Trump’s White House political director, and more than a dozen other people received subpoenas from a federal grand jury seeking information related to the Save America PAC and the alleged “fake electors” plot. (New York Times / New York Times / CNN / CBS News /