F.B.I. Raids Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate

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Bolded part is the part that makes so little sense. It seems a LOT, maybe a majority, of republican voters are basing their vote on who will 'own the libs,' instead of who will do the best job of governing according to their policy preferences and what will benefit them.

Wtf? Why vote against healthcare and education and all sorts of other things to 'own the libs,' while shooting yourself in the foot/face?

Thanks, tips. I’m well aware of what the phrase means and used it properly.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) revised its inventory list of items seized from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence Monday.

The move came after the special master appointed to oversee the case, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie of New York, directed the FBI last week to conduct an additional review of the items seized in order to make a final "full and accurate" declaration regarding what was taken.

The updated list added 55 items to the over 11,000 government-owned documents and photographs the DOJ says were removed from Mar-a-Lago, according to NBC News.

Back in August, Trump attorney Alina Habba said on Fox News that she was concerned the FBI may have "planted something" during its raid of Mar-a-Lago.

The FBI has declined to comment on the Trump team's allegations it planted evidence, according to CNN.

The newest addition to former President Donald Trump’s legal team, Chris Kise, has been sidelined from the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation less than a month after he was brought on to represent Trump in the matter, two sources familiar with the move tell CNN.

Kise is expected to remain on Trump’s legal team but is not leading the work related to the federal government’s investigation into how the former President handled 11,000 documents seized from his Florida home in August following a lengthy effort by the government to retrieve them. The reason for the shift in Kise’s role remains unclear and he may instead focus his efforts on the other investigations Trump is facing, which range from his business practices to the January 6 insurrection.

The move is notable given Kise, the former solicitor general for Florida, was brought on to the team after a weeks-long search and struggle to find someone willing to take on the case who was also experienced in Florida law. The legal strategy for fighting the Justice Department following the August seizure of over 100 documents marked as classified was also in disarray.

Kise’s hiring came with an unusual price tag of $3 million, paid for by Trump’s outside spending arm. The retainer fee, paid upfront, raised eyebrows among other lawyers on Trump’s team, given the former President has a developed a reputation for not paying his legal fees.

His sidelining will likely be read as another setback for Trump as he faces multiple investigations.

Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said: “Chris Kise’s role as an important member of President Trump’s legal team remains unchanged, and any suggestion otherwise is untrue.”

Kise did not respond to a request for comment.

Kise had been viewed among Trump contacts as a serious white-collar attorney and trial lawyer, with Florida court chops. Before he came aboard, other lawyers on Trump’s team were perceived in legal circles to have made serious missteps in the investigation, such as not fully recognizing the legal risk of the documents investigation before the search of Mar-a-Lago, telling investigators all classified records had been turned over, missing opportunities to argue for executive privilege and having an appeals court deliver a drubbing against Trump’s bid to block classified documents in the investigation.

The Justice Department moved to quickly dismantle the independent review of documents seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, contending that the review — ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon — is impeding its criminal investigation.

In a 15-page filing asking a federal appeals court to speed its consideration of the issue, prosecutors complained the “special master” review prevents DOJ from accessing thousands of non-classified records recovered from the former president’s estate.

While those documents don’t present the same urgent national security concerns as the smaller volume of classified materials DOJ successfully fought to regain access to earlier this month, Justice Department officials said the continued blockade on non-classified materials had slowed investigators’ efforts to determine how some of the classified records were transferred to Mar-a-Lago and whether any of them were improperly accessed.

“The government is … unable to examine records that were commingled with materials bearing classification markings, including records that may shed light on, for example, how the materials bearing classification markings were transferred to Plaintiff’s residence, how they were stored, and who may have accessed them,” DOJ officials, including counterintelligence chief Jay Bratt, wrote in the filing with the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. “The records not marked as classified may also constitute evidence of potential [obstruction] and [concealment or removal of government records].”

The Justice Department is seeking an expedited review of its appeal of Cannon’s order establishing the special master review. Though legal briefing in the appeal was slated to carry through mid-December or longer, DOJ’s proposed expedited schedule would conclude that process by mid-November and have oral arguments set soon thereafter.

The filing also hints at prosecutors’ irritation with Cannon, a Trump appointee confirmed days after his defeat in the 2020 election. The Justice Department noted that she has repeatedly overruled decisions made by the special master she appointed at Trump’s suggestion, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Dearie. Those rulings could significantly delay Dearie’s review, prosecutors indicated.

Based on the district court’s orders thus far, the government is barred from accessing all of the materials except those with classification markings recovered in August pursuant to a lawful search warrant — and it may continue to be barred from doing so until mid-December or later,” the officials wrote as they asked the appeals court to weigh in promptly on the legal issues, including Trump’s claims of executive privilege.

“Absent such resolution by this Court, the special master proceedings could result in prolonged litigation, including through seriatim appeals to the district court from reports and recommendations and other rulings issued by the special master,” the prosecutors wrote.

The National Archives has still not recovered all the presidential records that should have been turned over at the end of the Trump administration, according to a new letter to Congress from the acting archivist.

'We do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,' Debra Steidel Wall, acting archivist of the United States, said in her letter to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., suggesting that former officials had still not turned over electronic messages of official business done on personal accounts.