-Gov’t acknowledges request for Special Master and will file reply.
-Gov’t will provide a more detailed property receipt (under seal)
-The filter team is done with their work and has identified some items which may be protected by attorney-client privilege
- DOJ and ODNI are reviewing classification of items recovered in search
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000182-e9fe-dac8-a3cb-fdffc2420000
Question: If the defendant is the United States of America, why is the United States notifying and responding to the court?
Maybe this is a Mandela Effect, but I remember in the early 90's that the newspaper ads announcing that cash or other property was seized (probably from suspected drug dealers), declared the actions to be in the form of United States vs. $50,000 in cash.
United States of America and United States are not equivalent:
8 U.S. Code § 1449 - Certificate of naturalization; contents
A person admitted to citizenship in conformity with the provisions of this subchapter shall be entitled upon such admission to receive from the Attorney General a certificate of naturalization, which shall contain substantially the following information: Number of application for naturalization; number of certificate of naturalization; date of naturalization; name, signature, place of residence, autographed photograph, and personal description of the naturalized person, including age, sex, marital status, and country of former nationality; location of the district office of the Service in which the application was filed and the title, authority, and location of the official or court administering the oath of allegiance; statement that the Attorney General, having found that the applicant had complied in all respects with all of the applicable provisions of the naturalization laws of the United States, and was entitled to be admitted a citizen of the United States of America, thereupon ordered that the applicant be admitted as a citizen of the United States of America; attestation of an immigration officer; and the seal of the Department of Justice.
FEDERAL JURISDICTION
It is further relevant to this Affidavit that any violation of my Rights, Freedom, or Property by the U.S. federal government, or any agent thereof, would be an illegal and unlawful excess, clearly outside the limited boundaries of federal jurisdiction. My understanding is that the jurisdiction of the U.S. federal government is defined by Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the U.S. Constitution, quoted as follows:
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"The Congress shall have the power . . . To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (NOT EXCEEDING TEN MILES SQUARE) as may, by cession of particular states and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the United States, [District of Columbia] and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock yards and other needful Buildings; And - To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers..." [emphasis added]
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and Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2:
"The Congress shall have the Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State."
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The definition of the "United States" being used here, then, is limited to its territories:
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It does not include the several states themselves, as is confirmed by the following cites:
"We have in our political system a Government of the United States and a government of each of the several States. Each one of these governments is distinct from the others, and each has citizens of its own who owe it allegiance, and whose rights, within its jurisdiction, it must protect. The same person may be at the same time a citizen of the United States and a Citizen of a State, but his rights of citizenship under one of these governments will be different from those he has under the other."
Slaughter House Cases United States vs. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1875).
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This is further confirmed by the following quote from the Internal Revenue Service:
Federal jurisdiction "includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa." -
Internal Revenue Code Section 312(e).