Trump loses again

I see where a three judge appeals court, with two judges appointed by Trump, found unanimously in favor of the DOJ claim that it needed to resume review of documents taken by Trump to Mar-a-Lago as part of a criminal investigation. This really should have been a no-brainer. The justifications used by Judge Cannon (a Trump appointee) to halt the DOJ review had no basis in law.

I suspect that the government overclassifies documents, in come cases to avoid embarrassment. But on national security issues, the null hypothesis must be that classification is justified until it is found not to be. If any other private citizen besides Trump were found to have hidden classified government documents from the government, denying their existence, they would already have been indicted. It is a testament to the deference that Trump receives as a national cult leader that he isn't in jail or out on bail.

Here's the nut grafs from a paywalled post (no link) by Josh Marshall over at TPM:

"The documents are the property of the US government. The current President speaks for the US government. A former President doesn’t own them or have any need to see them, let alone keep them at his villa in a closet or in a desk drawer. Trump stole federal property. He misused these documents and endangered US national security by stealing and refusing to return them. Sometimes the danger to national security tied to classified documents is more notional than real. When they describe the work of US agents spying for the US abroad or even within foreign governments the danger is real, especially to the spies!

"Given the constitutional ambiguities of the presidency, one could if very generous argue that the initial theft was inadvertent or a misunderstanding. The repeated warnings and refusal to return them over show that’s not the case. He broke a lot of laws and the laws will become more and more meaningless if he isn’t held to account."