Schoen is getting animated. He in essence suggests that if Bannon were truly trying to break the law, he would have just said "Screw you Congress!" Bannon declines to address the court. "My lawyers have spoken for me, your honor." We are in a brief recess while Nichols mulls a decision on sentencing

I am in court for Steve Bannon's sentencing. Judge Nichols so far agrees with most of the government's arguments, and says Bannon will not receive any reductions for acceptance of responsibility. Bannon "has expressed no remorse," Nichols says. David Schoen, one of Bannon's lawyers, contends there is no mandatory minimum of 30 days for this offense. Nichols asks: "What if I think those arguments are not compelling?" Schoen responds: "Then your honor will rule against us."

I am back in the media room of the DC U.S. District Court today for the Oath Keepers trial. We are expecting to hear more from Oath Keeper Jason Dolan, who gave damning testimony yesterday saying he was prepared to take up arms to keep Trump in power Some preliminary matters first. The government is intending to call another FBI witness to the stand later today, after Dolan is done testifying. They are dealing with objections to certain exhibits

Happening now: Status call update between prosecutors from @TheJusticeDept and Trump's attorneys with Special Master Raymond Dearie. Dearie says 21,792 documents were uploaded for Trump's team to review

New: Former DOJ official @JeffClarkUS has filed suit to remove the DC Bar ethics case against him from the local court to transfer it to federal court (h/t @MikeScarcella) storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… In an Oct 6 subpoena to Clark, the DC Bar asks him to produce: "any documents supporting the contention that you were Acting Attorney General
on January 3, 2021."

NEW: Trump's filing in the 11th circuit is in. His lawyers still don't get into whether he de-classified the 100 docs in question BUT they openly question if DOJ is telling the truth about the fact they are classified "The government again presupposes that the documents it claims are classified are, in fact, classified and their segregation is inviolable. However, the government has not yet proven this critical fact," they write

DOJ and Trump's lawyers have filed their proposed agenda for tomorrow's hearing with Judge Dearie. While largely logistical in nature, Trump's lawyers have an interesting line in theirs: they say they do not wish at this time to disclose a declassification defense They say the time and place for any such disclosure would come in a Rule 41 motion (aka motion to return property)

There are some interesting new filings in the ongoing DC Bar disciplinary proceedings against former DOJ official Jeff Clark. Apparently he tried, and failed to convince the Board on Professional Responsibility to keep everything pretty much under seal. Apparently Jeff Clark has tried to seal everything he deems to be related to the "pending federal investigation" involving him and the seizure of his electronic devices in June

U.S. judge agrees to special master in Trump search case, delaying probe reuters.com/world/us/trump… I spoke with more DOJ alum. All agreed appeal is likely in order, and the easiest path is to do so starting with the judge's preliminary injunction. That would likely, although not necessarily, ask the 11th Circuit to address the concerns about executive privilege

NEW: Aileen Cannon has GRANTED Trump's request for a special master to review not just attorney client privileged docs, but also executive privileged docs Cannon ENJOINS DOJ from reviewing the documents for its criminal probe, but allows U.S. intelligence officials to continue the national security damage assessment and classification reviews

Less than 10 minutes until Trump's team is meant to file its latest legal brief ahead of tomorrow's oral arguments. Tick tock tick tock. It's here. reading now

US JUSTICE DEPT SAYS TRUMP'S LAWYERS NEVER ASSERTED TO FBI THAT HE HAD DECLASSIFIED RECORDS JUSTICE DEPT SAYS IT MADE MULITPLE ATTEMPTS TO RETRIEVE GOVERNMENT RECORDS FROM TRUMP BEFORE RESORTING TO SEARCH WARRANT

Sealed item on Trump lawsuit docket. Could be DOJ. I feel like the Count from Sesame Street. ONE sealed entry! hahaha! TWO sealed entries. hahaha!

NEW: @TheJusticeDept tells Judge Cannon its filter team has found a limited number of materials covered by attorney-client privilege in search of Trump home DOJ also tells the court it is conducting a classification review, along with ODNI, of the materials seized from Trump's home. It also confirms what was reported this weekend: ODNI is leading an intelligence community assessment

Hmmm. A sealed docket entry was just made on the docket for the Trump warrant... 08/15/2022 SYSTEM ENTRY - Docket Entry 55 restricted/sealed until further notice. (jmd) (Entered: 08/15/2022) And another sealed entry SYSTEM ENTRY - Docket Entry 56 restricted/sealed until further notice. (jmd) (Entered: 08/15/2022)

Greetings from the D.C. federal courthouse where Guy Reffitt, a Three Percenter who stormed the Capitol and later threatened to harm his kids if they ratted him out to the FBI, will be sentenced today Guy's son Jackson Reffitt apparently wrote a letter to be considered at sentencing. But it's hard to hear because the AUSA is not speaking into the microphone

BREAKING: The D.C. Bar Office of Disciplinary Counsel has filed ethics charges against @JeffClarkUS DC Bar says Clark made false statements about Georgia's election results in draft letter he pressured Acting AG and Acting DAG to send to the state

Greetings. It's day 6 of the Steven Bannon trial. Shortly before midnight, Bannon's team filed objections to the proposed jury instructions... I assume this means we cannot expect closings promptly at 9 am OMG it's day FIVE. I need more coffee... It feels like day 1 million. Apologies!

Greetings from Day 4 of Steve Bannon's criminal trial, in which he is accused of defying a subpoena from @January6thCmte The day is expected to open with the defense making arguments about getting the case dismissed, and the jury should be filing in around 11amish The judge is entering. And we begin....

Greetings from the Steve Bannon trial, day 3. AUSA Vaughn is complaining about a comment Evan Corcoran made in his openings yesterday in which he claimed the case against Bannon is "political." Vaughn is worried Bannon's lawyers will try to ask the govn't witnesses about the fact GOP House members voted against the contempt referral (in a bid to show the case is politically motivated)

Recess until 1 pm Today has been a cluster. It's convoluted and hard to explain but in a nutshell, the parties cannot agree over redactions to letters between Bannon and the @January6thCmte due to limits on what Bannon can present as a defense