Judge Cannon hands Donald Trump an early Christmas gift by interfering with special master

Just because Judge Aileen Cannon gifted Donald Trump with a special master, and let him pick who he wanted to serve in that role, does not mean she’s done with stepping in to provide Trump another damn the law, full-speed ahead gift of a ruling. Just one day after Trump’s attorneys complained that they couldn’t meet the deadlines Special Master Judge Raymond Dearie had set, Cannon stepped in to not only give Trump more time—she actually extended her own deadlines, bumping the closing date all the way back to Dec. 16.

In addition, Cannon nixed a critical step of the plan that Dearie had laid out. In any special master proceeding, both sides have to agree on the inventory of documents to be reviewed. Otherwise, it’s not possible to be sure that everything that needed to be dealt with has actually been dealt with. But Cannon never ordered Trump to declare that the list given to him by the Department of Justice was accurate, or to claim that there were documents left off, or to say that there were some things that were on the list but should not be.

Just as they’ve been making noise about Trump declassifying documents without presenting one bit of evidence this ever happened, Trump’s legal team has also been insinuating that the Department of Justice might have planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago. Dearie’s insistence that Trump agree to the inventory, or state his objections, was designed to not only get the proceedings moving, but end any possibility that Trump would later claim some of the evidence was planted. Now Cannon has removed that obligation. The DOJ has to give an inventory and swear to its accuracy. Trump doesn’t have to swear to anything.