DOJ gave Judge Cannon an 'out' — while still giving Trump what he wants: Former prosecutor

On Friday's edition of MSNBC's "All In," former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti discussed the implications of the DOJ's notice of appeal to Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon's ruling blocking the FBI investigation of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

The DOJ is only threatening to appeal certain parts of the ruling — but, Mariotti argued to anchor Chris Hayes, this is essentially their way of making it politically easier for her to capitulate and make a reasonable compromise.

"Walk me through where we are procedurally here," said Hayes. "The order was issued, DOJ responded to the order and, said this is crazy. But we are begging you to only stop this one portion where you said we can't use the hundred classified documents we have for our investigative purposes. Please reconsider that. She can now reconsider before it gets appealed above her?"

"That's right," said Mariotti. "They basically gave her an out, Chris. They said, putting all of this aside, we're gonna try to resolve the issues regarding attorney-client privilege, will allow a special master for that. We're gonna return a lot of his personal property. But as for the classified documents, obviously, the government owns those, obviously they are not attorney-client privilege. There is a very serious potential harm here to the public. So if you don't give us an accommodation here to let us to continue to determine whether or not those documents, for example, are a potential threat to national security, we're gonna have to appeal."

The upshot, Mariotti argued, is that Cannon herself appears interested in an exit strategy for the legal mess she created.

"Essentially, what I think that order that you just mentioned is her sending an overture to Trump's team, please give me a way out of this by backing off of the classified documents," said Mariotti.

Watch below:

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