Pam Bondi Replaces Her Embarrassing Reading Comprehension Failure with a 4A Violation - emptywheel

"When Judge Cameron Currie surprised Pam Bondi's Counselor, Henry Whitaker, on Thursday with a question about whether DOJ believes Aileen Cannon wrongly dismissed Trump's stolen documents case, Whitaker claimed what distinguished Jack Smith from Lindsey Halligan is that Halligan is closely supervised. I do think that mostly what was driving Judge Cannon's decision in that case was sort of the unique and broad authority that the special counsel possessed sort of free of supervision, which, of course, is an element that we do not have here."

"Since that day, on October 31, when Pam Bondi claimed to ratify Lindsey's work without noticing she couldn't see that work, and yesterday, several things have happened. We've gotten a lot more details about the suspected Fourth Amendment and Attorney-Client privilege violations Jim Comey's investigators committed. First, Rebekah Donaleski told Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick that Jim Comey's team believed investigators had worked off material seized from Dan Richman that was not responsive to the four warrants used to investigate him. Effectively, a general warrant."

"[D]id the agents preserve nonresponsive copies or nonresponsive materials for five years? Because the Fourth Circuit has said that's not reasonable. Did that happen? Because the prolonged retention of nonresponsive electronic data can render an initially lawful search unconstitutional. The Fourth Circuit has said that. That's what appears to have happened here."

Judge Cameron Currie asked whether DOJ believes Aileen Cannon wrongly dismissed Trump's stolen documents case, and Henry Whitaker emphasized Lindsey Halligan was closely supervised. Whitaker said Cannon's decision was driven by the special counsel's unique, broad authority free of supervision, an element absent here. Whitaker acknowledged lack of full grand jury transcripts when Pam Bondi claimed to ratify Halligan's work. Rebekah Donaleski told Magistrate Judge Fitzpatrick that Comey's investigators likely used material seized from Dan Richman that exceeded the scope of four warrants, raising questions about a general warrant and prolonged retention of nonresponsive data.

Read at emptywheel