The latest response filed by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers in the special master dispute before Judge Aileen Cannon smacks of an extremism and desperation perhaps born of having been maneuvered into a legal corner by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department.

Instead of filing a concise counter to the DOJ’s carefully tailored ask of Judge Cannon to partially stay her own order just enough to allow investigators access to classified documents, Trump’s legal team begins with a rambling “Introduction” that takes up nearly a quarter of its filing in which it characterizes the entire matter as merely “a document storage dispute” that wrongfully criminalizes Trump’s possession of his own presidential and personal records.

Trump’s lawyers use quotes around the word “classified,” implying that the very classification of any documents is suspect, assert that only a special master can start “restoring order to chaos” and argue that the DOJ is trying to “skip the process and proceed straight to a preordained conclusion.” All of that is on the first page.

The DOJ’s decision to narrow its legal argument to just seeking access to the classified materials is a smart move because it plays to the strongest part of its argument—namely that it’s not possible to investigate a case involving classified documents without access to the documents—leaving Trump’s lawyers little choice but to attack the DOJ’s very decision to investigate at all.

For example, their use of the phrase “preordained conclusion” clumsily tries to mimic the cliched “rush to judgement” language famously used by legendary criminal defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran in his successful closing argument in O.J. Simpson’s murder trial. But the conclusion Cochran was challenging was the conclusion reached by a criminal investigation—namely that O.J. Simpson had committed murder. In contrast, Trump’s lawyers are trying to control the process of the criminal investigation itself.

The latest response filed by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers in the special master dispute before Judge Aileen Cannon smacks of an extremism and desperation perhaps born of having been maneuvered into a legal corner by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department.

Instead of filing a concise counter to the DOJ’s carefully tailored ask of Judge Cannon to partially stay her own order just enough to allow investigators access to classified documents, Trump’s legal team begins with a rambling “Introduction” that takes up nearly a quarter of its filing in which it characterizes the entire matter as merely “a document storage dispute” that wrongfully criminalizes Trump’s possession of his own presidential and personal records.

Trump’s lawyers use quotes around the word “classified,” implying that the very classification of any documents is suspect, assert that only a special master can start “restoring order to chaos” and argue that the DOJ is trying to “skip the process and proceed straight to a preordained conclusion.” All of that is on the first page.

The DOJ’s decision to narrow its legal argument to just seeking access to the classified materials is a smart move because it plays to the strongest part of its argument—namely that it’s not possible to investigate a case involving classified documents without access to the documents—leaving Trump’s lawyers little choice but to attack the DOJ’s very decision to investigate at all.

For example, their use of the phrase “preordained conclusion” clumsily tries to mimic the cliched “rush to judgement” language famously used by legendary criminal defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran in his successful closing argument in O.J. Simpson’s murder trial. But the conclusion Cochran was challenging was the conclusion reached by a criminal investigation—namely that O.J. Simpson had committed murder. In contrast, Trump’s lawyers are trying to control the process of the criminal investigation itself.