BREAKING: THREAD: Jack Smith has filed a motion for Judge Cannon to RECONSIDER her recent ruling that would unseal witness names & the substance of their testimony, putting them at significant risk of immediate threats and intimidation. 1/
Smith says that trump attached protected discovery information to court filings to shift the burden to the government to prove sealing is necessary & that Cannon wrongly decided witness safety/grand jury secrecy/integrity of the trial are not good enough reasons to seal. 2/
Smith says Cannon was WRONG in 2 respects & should reconsider. He then cites the 11th circuit, which has bench slapped Cannon before. 3/
"First, the 11th Circuit has held that the compelling-interest standard applied by the Court does NOT apply to “documents filed in connection with motions to compel discovery,” which instead may be sealed or redacted simply upon a showing of “good cause". 4/
I think this citation is important because I think Jack Smith is saying "If I appeal this to the 11th circuit, they're going to reverse your ruling if you don't do it now" because Cannon applied the WRONG LEGAL STANDARD. Then he gives the 2nd reason she's wrong. 5/
Smith says she needs to change her ruling to "prevent manifest injustice." Cannon's erroneous order would ID over two dozen people who would otherwise remain anonymous, or will face threats over their testimony. 6/
"Reconsideration is warranted to correct CLEAR ERROR & prevent MANIFEST INJUSTICE." Basically, trump attached protected discovery (witness names) to a motion to compel so he could ask Cannon to unseal them. A sneaky way to get a list of witnesses against him out to the public. 7/
Some of the things the government wants to remain under seal: witness interviews, including a transcript of one witness that didn't want to be recorded, citing the risks from "trump world", plus information about obstruction and witness intimidation. 8/
Transcripts of interviews detailing the process of finding attorneys for two individuals. I imagine this has to do with trump allies getting lawyers for other trump allies or defendants. 9/
Expert testimony about the Mar a Lago search, including information about the location of trump's son's bedroom. 10/
Jack Smith was allowed to attach an exhibit of threats made online to witnesses - threats that are currently under federal criminal investigation. I don't have the filing yet on court listener to link, but here's PACER link. I'll add it when I get it. END/
UPDATE: Judge Cannon has extended the due date for a response to this motion to 2/23.
I've written about this here: post.news/@/MuellerSheWr…
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