Trump has 'no chance of successfully arguing' DOJ must return docs to him after new filing: legal expert

Appearing on MSNBC very early Friday morning, former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance claimed that a Thursday filing by the Department of Justice, asking for a stay of certain provisions demanded by a judge appointed by Donald Trump over sensitive documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago, was brilliantly executed and will put the judge on the spot.

As the Associated Press reported, "The 21-page Justice Department filing lays bare the government’s concern about the impact it believes will be caused by the judge’s order, which temporarily halted core aspects of its criminal investigation, and its continued objections to the planned appointment of a 'special master”'to conduct an independent review of the records taken from Mar-a-Lago. Already, the department said, the intelligence community has paused its separate risk assessment that the judge had permitted to continue because of 'uncertainty regarding the bounds of the Court’s order.'"

Speaking with Jonathan Lemire, Vance praised the move and stated she saw no chance that the former president would prevail in getting key documents back.

"This is a great strategy that D.O.J. is using," Vance told the host. They have taken the strongest part of their case and asked the judge to have a carve-out, in essence asking her to permit them to go ahead and use about 100 documents that are classified materials while the rest of the case is ongoing."

"To get the judge to enter an order like this, D.O.J. has to show that it has a strong chance of success on the merits, and also that it will suffer irreparable injury if the judge continues to prohibit them using the documents," the former prosecutor elaborated. "Their case is very tightly crafted in this regard. They talk on the one hand about the former president's complete lack of any ownership interest or right to these documents; in other words, Trump has no chance of successfully arguing that the documents should come back to him because they are not his. They are the government's."

"And at the same time, D.O.J. makes the forceful case for how it's the intelligence community assessment, it will be damaged, as well as the criminal case in moving forward," she added. "So they're asking the judge to back off a little bit while they appeal the rest of their case to Atlanta."

Watch below or at this link.

MSNBC 09 09 2022 05 47 17youtu.be