Leftist journalist Jason Leopold filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DOJ/FBI a few years ago, seeking the documents and background material assembled by the DOJ, FBI and Special Counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.  With the Mar-a-Lago case against Trump dismissed by a Florida judge, and effectively dropped by Special Counsel Jack Smith.  The justification for withholding the responsive material is no longer valid.

This has resulted in anti-Trump U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, now ruling that anti-Trump journalist Jason Leopold should be given the FOIA documents by the FBI and DOJ. [Ruling pdf here].  Essentially, Howell is saying, angrily, that with President Trump immune from criminal liability (SCOTUS immunity decision), the only public recourse for accountability is sunlight from within the evidence the FBI assembled.

Here is where it gets interesting.

The DOJ/FBI Special Counsel, previously said to the Florida court they would not reveal the content of the information because it was “classified” under “national security” grounds.  You might remember President Trump’s legal position was to make the content public because Trump said there was no classified material.

To reconcile the issue, during discovery phase Florida Judge Cannon appointed a Special Master to review the “classified” documents.  The FBI and Jack Smith balked at the demand and filed an appeal with the 11th Circuit to keep the Trump defense from reviewing what Jack Smith said were “documents marked classified.”  Smith didn’t want the documents made public or revealed to President Trump, so the DOJ/FBI position was that the documents were too sensitive (TSCI) with “national security” implications.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the government position that any documents defined as “classified” by the executive branch (now Biden) that claimed, “national security,” should not be disclosed to the defendant, Trump.  The court of appeals essentially determined that all definitions by the executive branch, are not questionable by the judicial branch.

The bottom line was that President Trump’s legal team were never able to ascertain exactly what the “documents marked classified” actually were.  That aspect of the case was pure Lawfare, and actually quite silly.

The DOJ was saying Trump had “documents with classification markings.”  Trump saying, “no I didn’t have classified documents, but if true what where they?”  And the DOJ saying, “we can’t tell you, that’s classified.”  It was silly and never reconciled in part because the case was dismissed.

Well…. now Judge Beryl Howell is telling the DOJ/FBI to produce the “documents with classification markings,” and all surrounding information therein, to Jason Leopold, because Trump bad and the information will make the public hate him, or something [SEE Court Order].  But again, no-one knows what these “documents with classification markings” actually were…. Except, well, maybe us.  We have well-based circumstantially supported suspicions. {see here}

Will the Trump DOJ (now Pam Bondi) and the Trump FBI (likely Kash Patel) release the files and material to Jason Leopold, as demanded by Judge Howell?

I think there’s a strong possibility they will, which then begs the question:

….If the documents were of such critical national security value, then why would the “documents with classification markings” be released under the auspices of a simple FOIA claim?

lolol…  See the stupidity of it?

The “Documents with classification markings” were of such devastating content, such that the DOJ protected them from visibility even by a security cleared special master; and then fought the release of the documents to the Trump defense – who was charged with defending Trump against the accusation that surrounded them; where the DOJ even fought the release of the “documents with classification markings” all the way to the 11th CCA to keep them hidden; well, then how the heck do those documents get released by a simple Freedom of Information Act request by a journalist?

Judge Beryl Howell never attempts to reconcile that issue in her order.

Sometimes Lawfare can be a little funny when it is argued by leftists, in courts controlled by leftists, with leftist judges, with inherent hypocrisy that surrounds the concept of leftist Lawfare.  I would love to see Eric A Dubelier Esq write about this (lol).

Bottom line, I have a strong suspicion this order, intended to create an anti-Trump narrative, is going to boomerang once the public see the “Documents with classification markings.”

Let’s see what happens.

[Politico Story Here]