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Two weeks ago, the Eleventh Circuit unceremoniously benchslapped Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon for abusing her discretion by appointing a special master to review documents seized by the government at the former president’s Florida home/country club. It took a minute for that to shake out, but yesterday, after Trump failed to seek a stay pending appeal or en banc review, the trial court made it official, issuing an order dismissing the case and putting an end to this preposterous, three-month debacle.
It was an absolute humiliation for Judge Cannon, as well as for Trump’s legal team, whose lucky break in landing in front of the one jurist who wouldn’t immediately yeet them into the sun does nothing to redeem their risibly stupid arguments. The only person who comes out of this looking smart is former Florida Solicitor General Chris Kise, who got paid $3 million up front to have his reasonable advice ignored by the world’s worst client.
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Kise was hired at the end of August, after Trump’s attorneys Jim Trusty, Evan Corcoran, and Lindsey Halligan had already filed the first batcrap insane motions before Judge Cannon. According to the Washington Post, Kise immediately got crosswise with the rest of Trump’s team, particularly his advisor Boris Epshteyn, a lawyer who ran point on the fake electors scheme and recently had his phone seized by the FBI. And if you can’t trust a guy with that resumé, who can ya trust?
Kise counseled a conciliatory approach, including hiring an outside firm to search Trump’s properties for all government records and return them to the National Archives in an attempt to get the DOJ to agree not to charge the former president with crimes. But the rest of Trump’s coterie, including whichever soothsayer told him the Judge Raymond Dearie was likely go hard on the FBI, opted to come out swinging.
Meanwhile Tom Fitton the head of Judicial Watch, advised Trump to stiff arm prosecutors and insist on his legal right to make off with any and all government documents. Fitton’s organization unsuccessfully sued the National Archives in 2012 seeking to force it to go retrieve audiotapes made by Bill Clinton’s biographer. From this loss, Fitton inferred that the Presidential Records Act empowers the executive to mentally designate even classified documents as personal records and stuff them in his suitcase on the way out the door. The PRA says no such thing, and anyway Fitton isn’t a lawyer. But that didn’t stop Trusty and Corcoran from relying on “the Judicial Watch decision” when they argued before the special master that their client had the unreviewable right to pocket government records.
Sadly we’ll never get to read Judge Dearie’s opinion on the matter, since the Eleventh Circuit nuked this case from orbit. But Kise was at least spared the ignominy of having his name attached to those filings, having been almost immediately shunted off the Florida documents case, where he might have done some good, to the New York state civil prosecution of the Trump Organization. This made Kise co-counsel with Alina Habba, an attorney with significantly less experience, who spends most of her time on Newsmax and Fox screeching invective about judges she’s appearing in front of.
Kise’s first order of business in New York was to ride along with Habba’s effort to get the case removed from Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s docket. The court denied the motion, calling it “procedurally improper and substantively unavailing.” Team Trump has appealed, of course. They’ve also enlisted Kise for the series of interlocutory appeals under New York state law — not exactly his bailiwick.
Kise was no more effective in his effort to dissuade Trump from filing that insane clown suit in Florida state court demanding that it enjoin New York Attorney General Letitia James from filing any action in New York Court which would grant it access to Trump’s revocable trust documents. Kise warned that the ridiculous complaint would harm the New York case, and he was right. The AG’s office immediately pointed to the Florida LOLsuit as evidence that the company sought to evade jurisdiction and transfer assets out of New York, bolstering its argument in favor of appointing an independent monitor to have eyes on the company. And apparently, Justice Engoron agreed.
Indeed, Kise appears to have dispensed pretty decent legal advice here. Of course, he did sign up to represent the one guy who could be virtually guaranteed to ignore any and all wise counsel, opting every single time to do the opposite. But at least Kise got paid first.
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.