...overruling an arbiter she had appointed herself. [And who was suggested by lawyers for 45th himself]
...
The first provision Judge Cannon set aside was a measure that had asked Mr. Trump’s lawyers to certify by Friday the accuracy of the F.B.I.’s inventory of the property it seized from Mar-a-Lago — and to indicate whether there was anything that agents did not take from the compound.
That had put Mr. Trump and his lawyers in a bind. If they acknowledged that the bureau had found sensitive documents, the admission could be used as evidence against Mr. Trump. Moreover, in public statements, Mr. Trump has repeatedly accused F.B.I. agents of planting evidence during their search.
In her ruling on Thursday, Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, sided with the former president, eliminating the stipulation about the inventory. Her initial order, she said, “did not contemplate that obligation.”
“There shall be no separate requirement on plaintiff at this stage, prior to the review of any of the seized materials,” she wrote.
Judge Dearie had also directed Mr. Trump’s legal team to sort any documents over which he intended to assert executive privilege into two categories: privilege that would shield White House information from disclosure to people outside the executive branch, like Congress, and privilege that would purportedly shield such information from review within the executive branch.
Mr. Trump’s legal team also objected to that requirement, saying Judge Cannon had not given the special master permission to make them engage in such a distinction. On Thursday, Judge Cannon appeared to side with Mr. Trump on that issue, too.
Trump’s lawyers need only say whether something was subject to executive privilege — and, if so, to include a statement with “a sufficient description of the rationale and scope of the assertion from which to evaluate the merits of the assertion,” she said.
Cannon also rejected a swift timetable Judge Dearie had set to resolve the review of the documents, slowing the matter down.
Trump’s lawyers have complained that the review was too fast; Judge Cannon on Thursday slowed down the process, giving Mr. Trump’s lawyers significantly more time to assess the documents.
Under Judge Dearie’s proposal, he could have analyzed the central issue
raised by Mr. Trump’s claims of executive privilege as soon as late
October. But Judge Cannon’s order could delay his submission of a report
and recommendations to her until December.
...Cannon essentially let Mr. Trump and his legal team out of a box that Judge Dearie had tried to put them in.
...
As the judge who appointed the special master, Judge Cannon has the authority to overrule Judge Dearie. But a federal appeals court in Atlanta has already blocked part of her original order as well, exempting documents with classification markings from the special master’s review and allowing the Justice Department to continue using them in its investigation.
...
Dearie’s requirements had imposed significant disadvantages for Mr. Trump by threatening to swiftly puncture Mr. Trump’s defenses. But Judge Cannon’s intervention on Thursday eased that threat.
Repeating myself shamelessly: DOJ strategically erred in paring down their appeal to the 11th Circuit rather than firing at Loose Cannon with all guns blazing. Now Dearie can't be done with just the special master delaying tactic until December.
