"Calm Down." (UPDATED)

 That was Judge Cannon to the Special Counsel's office in last week's hearing on Nauta's Motion to Dismiss for Prosecutorial Misconduct in the Trump documents case.  CNN has the coverage here:

Nauta claims that he was criminally charged in the case as retaliation for declining to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation into the former president’s retention of classified documents at his estate.



This photo from the US Department of Justice allegedly shows Walt Nauta moving boxes inside former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. From US Department of Justice

“I had been recommended for a judgeship, that’s beyond dispute,” Woodward said Wednesday. “There was a folder about defense counsel on the table” during that meeting, he said, claiming Bratt referenced that judgeship recommendation.

“I think the implication was that I was to travel and convince Mr. Nauta to cooperate with the investigation, and if I didn’t that, there would be consequences,” Woodward said.

Prosecutor David Harbach then rose and accused Woodward of engaging in “procedural gamesmanship” by making a “garbage argument” about the meeting.

“Mr. Woodward’s story of what happened at that meeting is a fantasy,” Harbach shouted, banging his hand on the lectern in front of him. “It did not happen.”

The heated proceedings Wednesday come as the Manhattan hush money case against Trump nears its conclusion and a new phase of pretrial activity gets underway in the federal classified documents prosecution in Florida. 

Wow.  Too bad we don't have cameras in the courtroom to see it. Meantime, Special Counsel filed a motion to modify the conditions of release to partially gag the former President based on his claims that the search team was "locked and loaded" and ready to take him out, via The Hill.   Trump has responded asking for sanctions.  Ah, fun times. (UPDATED -- Judge Cannon denied the Special Counsel's motion for lack of meaningful conferral and also denied Trump's motion for sanctions.)

All of this on the eve of closing arguments in New York.  I was asked on MSNBC last week how I would close for Trump.  Here's my one minute summary.