More sealed filings in documents case?

The docket page for the case against Trump over handling of classified documents has seen a flurry of “restricted” activity. It would appear that, one week after a controversy involving a sealed filing, someone has made two sealed filings.

Are these sealed findings?

The last entries on the Court Listener docket page are the key. It shows two “clear” entries for August 11. Entry 113 is a supplemental response to the standing discovery order in the case. Docket Entry 114 orders any lawyer not having a security clearance, to get one no later than August 23.

After that, come four entries, two for August 11 and two more for today. Each one appears as an unnumbered entry reading “SYSTEM ENTRY: Docket Entry ____ restricted/sealed until further notice.” Each entry has a different number filling in the blank, from 115 to 118 inclusive.

The most recent pair of such entries before this are Docket Entries 95 and 96. We then see Entry 100 – Judge Aileen Cannon’s order “denying 95 Sealed Motion” and ordering the clerk to strike Docket Entries 95 and 96 from the record. In that same order Judge Cannon invited – or ordered – defense counsel for Waltine Nauta, Trump’s valet, to discuss the “legal propriety” of using two grand juries, one from outside the district, to support a prosecution motion. The next filing – a response to a motion for a Garcia hearing – is due this Thursday (August 17).

Just what are they?

The four recent apparent sealed filings come in two pairs, one pair each entered on Friday and today. If they follow the patter for entries 95 and 96, then the two members of each pair are respectively:

1. A motion for leave to file under seal, and
2. Evidence of some kind for which the filing party wants leave to file under seal.

The Trump legal team almost certainly would want to file everything openly, for the public to see. So has Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team decided to try again with sealed filings?

The docket page gives a timestamp of 4:12 p.m. as the most recent update to the docket.

Developing…