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(Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Big mazal tov to Donald Trump, who finally managed to retain a lawyer who should be able to docket a pro hac vice motion on the very first try. He’s now hired the former solicitor general for the state of Florida, who presumably knows how to effect service of process on the US Attorney’s Office in less than a week! Maybe he’s even up to the task of trying to change his email on PACER.
This morning NBC was first to report that Trump has finally managed to get himself local Florida counsel with relevant experience — i.e. not a landlord-tenant attorney — inking a deal with former Solicitor General Chris Kise. According to NBC’s Marc Caputo, Kise has been negotiating with Trump since the August 8 raid and will leave his position at Foley & Lardner to represent the former president. The firm is intimately aware with the blowback that comes with representing FPOTUS, having shown partner Cleta Mitchell the door after her role in efforts to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”
Kise is an experienced litigator who argued multiple cases before the US Supreme Court, as well as the state’s highest court. He’s also a political “knife fighter,” who likely got Ron DeSantis elected in 2018 by leaking texts that showed his Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum had accepted Hamilton tickets from an undercover FBI agent. Just days later, DeSantis squeaked out a win with a margin of less than half a percent.
Clearly client management is a low priority for Kise, however, since Trump spent the morning amplifying various Qanon accounts and other 4chan weirdos on his Truth Social platform, posting upwards of 60 times this morning.
Meanwhile, prosecutors appear to be gearing up to speak quite a lot through their response to US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s announcement of “preliminary intent” to appoint a special master to adjudicate privilege claims. Having informed the court yesterday that it had already completed its review of the seized documents, segregating the attorney-client privileged ones and passing the classified ones on to the Director of National Intelligence to assess the fallout from any leakage, US Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez requested leave to file excess pages in today’s filing.
And tomorrow the parties will all meet before Judge Cannon to discuss the requested appointment of a special master. Get ready for a goat rodeo of epic proportions, even with Kise taking over for Trump’s heretofore hapless legal team.
United States v. Sealed Search Warrant [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.
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