THREAD: Why are Trumps lawyers upset that Mueller obtained transition emails from a govt agency?

[CousinIT]

Link to tweet

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THREAD: Why are Trump’s lawyers upset that Mueller obtained transition emails from a government agency? (Hint: They’re just playing politics, but this is a bad sign for them.)

1/ Today @axios reported that Mueller obtained tens of thousands of emails from the General Services Administration, which possessed them.

Scoop: Mueller obtains "tens of thousands” of Trump transition emails
Including emails of Jared Kushner
https://www.axios.com/scoop-mueller-obtains-tens-of-thousands-of-trump-transition-emails-2517994590.html

2/ @axios reported that the emails included very frank discussions as well as emails from Jared Kushner. Trump’s team was unaware that Mueller possessed the emails and were surprised when Mueller’s team asked questions based on the emails.

3/ Now Trump’s team has written a letter to Congress, complaining that some of the materials were “susceptible to privilege claims.” So what does this mean?

4/ First of all, it’s not unusual at all for prosecutors to obtain emails from other parties. That’s extremely common in white collar criminal investigations and is not improper.

5/ What *is* unusual here is that Mueller obtained emails from GSA even though he could have obtained (many of) the same emails from lawyers for the Trump Transition.

6/ Typically, in a white collar case, prosecutors obtain as many emails and documents as possible from defense attorneys instead of from another source.

7/ That’s because the defense team would review the emails, take out the ones that are not relevant, sort the emails, and put them in a format could be useable by Mueller.

8/ When a prosecutor obtains emails from a third party, usually irrelevant emails aren’t sorted out. So why would Mueller get the emails from GSA instead?

9/ One reason comes to mind. Mueller was concerned that he wouldn’t receive all of the emails if he obtained them from the Trump team. That’s surprising and suggests that he has reason to distrust Trump’s team.

10/ It appears that obtaining the documents from GSA also allowed Mueller to surprise witnesses who were not prepared to talk about emails that they didn’t think he had.

11/ I doubt that’s why Mueller obtained emails from GSA because any good lawyer would have reviewed the emails with their client anyway prior to an interview. Either the defense lawyers were incompetent or they weren’t surprised as they’re letting on.

12/ One important issue I should note is that typically prosecutors cannot obtain emails from a third party without using a search warrant, not a subpoena.

13/ If that happened here, it would mean a federal judge found that there was good reason to believe that a crime was committed and the emails contained evidence of a crime.

14/ In any event, when a prosecutor obtains emails from a third party, privileged documents are not removed. Typically prosecutors use “taint teams” to remove privileged documents before the prosecution team reviews them.

15/ If Mueller obtained a privileged email, the defense would be able to exclude it as evidence at trial. Typically all that happens is that the defense raises the issue with the prosecutor, and if the prosecutor agrees it is privileged, they return the privileged document.

16/ Disputes over privilege are common when prosecutors obtain emails and documents from third parties. That’s very common. What’s uncommon is what the Trump lawyers did here.

17/ Instead of sending a letter to Mueller, the attorneys sent a letter to Congress. Why? Probably to try to feed the growing effort to fire Mueller and/or try to discredit him to Congressional Republicans.

18/ Note also that the lawyers *don’t* say that the emails are privileged. They merely claim that some of the emails are “susceptible to privilege claims.” That’s weak language that suggests they’re not confident they have a strong claim that some of the emails are privileged.

19/ The biggest conclusion I’d draw from their letter is that they’re concerned about Mueller’s investigation and are doing whatever they can to discredit it. Their claims themselves are weak and are meant to persuade people who know nothing about criminal investigations. /end

[Sneederbunk]

1. More smoking guns than those at a NRA picnic.

[rzemanfl]

2. K&R n/t.

[dchill]

3. "susceptible to privilege claims."

That means they know they're screwed.

[annabanana]

4. Your thread title is the way the issue SHOULD be addressed.

Any email labelled .gov is treated as government's business. Nothing remarkable about Mueller having access to it.

[Sophia4]

5. Is it possible that Mueller believed that the attorneys for Trump and his

team could be complicit in criminal activity? In other words, might Mueller have gone to a judge with information suggesting that any claim to attorney-client privilege might not apply under the rules?

I have no inside knowledge so I am really asking questions, not making assertions.

[Wounded Bear]

6. IIRC, most of Trump's legal team are versed in civil law, not criminal law...

I think they're out of their depth.

[azureblue]

7. because

they have to mount some defense quick - they know those emails are incriminating. Too bad they are stupid about the law - like, duh, Executive privilege only applies when the president elect takes office. Not before. The emails were there, available to anyone who filed the right papers, so Trump's lawyers don't have a leg to stand on. And they know it.. They know now they are up against someone who will eat them alive and they are scared, because T's lawyers lied, too and they could be caught up and disbarred..

[Kablooie]

8. You agree to "NO EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY GRANTED OR IMPLIED" when you get a .gov email account.

According to another poster.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029992557

[BobTheSubgenius]

9. I'm no lawyer, but....

...these guys are, I presume.

https://apps.americanbar.org

Their contention is that, for privilege to apply to email, these conditions must be met:


- a communication between lawyer and client (person or corporation);

- the purpose of which is to seek or obtain legal advice;

- the communication is made to a lawyer acting in his/her capacity as a lawyer;

- the communication must be made and kept in confidence.

I find it hard to believe that an appreciable number of those emails meet ALL of those conditions.

[lagomorph777]

15. None of those conditions are applicable on a .gov address

Anyone communicating with their PERSONAL lawyer on a .gov address is a fool. And so is their lawyer.

[Kablooie]

16. Anything sent through .gov email is not made in confidence.

And if any truly classified content is sent that way the sender could be held responsible for publicly disseminating classified material.

[Ccarmona]

10. But They Dont Know Which EMails are Relevant to Muellers Investigation

So They are claiming Privilege to try and cover their asses.

[Obvious85]

11. Russia can do it illegally via Wiki but Mueller does it with a warrant and now the tears?

So Trump says it perfectly fine for Russia to hack Hillary's emails and put them on Wikileaks but not it's not when Mueller obtains a warrant and receives them legally? oh how hilarious

[C Moon]

12. They're trying to feed b.s. to Fox News and any other media outlet that will spread their lies.

[herding cats]

13. I suspect they're worried about things that were sent to or from private accounts to these accounts

This is just a hunch, but this could potentially open doors to warrants to other private email accounts. That’s what they’re trying to prevent here.

[L. Coyote]

14. Buy more popcorn futures everyone. The BIGLY SHOW is about to begin.