A federal judge has approved former President Donald Trump’s request a special master be appointed to review materials seized during the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon approved the request on Monday after the former president’s legal team and Justice Department officials met over the request in court last week. (Related: Florida Judge Responds to Trump Teams Request to Appoint Special Master to Review Seized Materials)
Judge Cannon said a written ruling will come “in due course.”
The Daily Wire reports:
“Pursuant to the Court’s equitable jurisdiction and inherent supervisory authority, and mindful of the need to ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity under the extraordinary circumstances presented, Plaintiff’s Motion [ECF No. 1] is GRANTED IN PART,” Cannon wrote in her order. “The Court hereby authorizes the appointment of a special master to review the seized property for personal items and documents and potentially privileged material subject to claims of attorney-client and/or executive privilege.”
The Florida judge’s order also temporarily halts the Justice Department’s investigation of the documents.
During last week’s court hearing the DOJ argued Trump’s request for a special master was “unnecessary” and released shocking photos of the recovered documents.
“Furthermore, appointment of a special master would impede the government’s ongoing criminal investigation and—if the special master were tasked with reviewing classified documents—would impede the Intelligence Community from conducting its ongoing review of the national security risk that improper storage of these highly sensitive materials may have caused and from identifying measures to rectify or mitigate any damage that improper storage caused,” the filing said. “Lastly, this case does not involve any of the types of circumstances that have warranted appointment of a special master to review materials potentially subject to attorney-client privilege.”
Trump’s legal team has argued some records protected by attorney-client privilege and executive privilege, another claim the DOJ has heavily pushed against.
Hooray Victory
Can we trust a Master to be impartial?
That depends on who the master is.
At least as impartial as the judge appointed by Obama and approved a witch hunt.
The answer is no. You can’t trust anyone in this circus of the swamp.
Can’t wait to see who the DOJ recommends. They’ll claim to be bi-partisan and recommend Liz Chaney.
There are honest people in the U S and some of them may be in our Justice department. All we can do is pray and rely on the Lord to watch over the situation. I’d hate to be the one person, who feels the rath of God if it’s not dwelt with honestly?
Isn’t THAT funny! . . . I WONDER what they will find NOW. At least there is a JUDGE with some decency. There is NO EXCUSE for the RAID at Mar – A – Lago . One Enlightened Patriot.
Given the volume and variety of documents seized by the raid, it’s apparent that the search warrant was too broadly defined, an obvious oversight by the applying judge who should have recused himself.
The “applying” judge should read the “approving” judge.
So glad we got what Trump wanted.