A federal judge in Florida is asking the Justice Department for more specific information about the documents removed from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Largo estate and announced her “preliminary intent” to grant Trump’s request for a special master in the case.
If appointed, a special master would review the documents and identify any that may be covered by executive privilege, and return any documents outside the scope of the search warrant.
The appointment of a special master wouldn’t be unusual in a high-profile case like this.
Trump has also requested a more thorough inventory of personal property seized in the raid.
Fox News:
The current property receipt shows that FBI agents took approximately 20 boxes of items from the premises, including one set of documents marked as “Various classified/TS/SCI documents,” which refers to top secret/sensitive compartmented information.
Records covered by that government classification level could potentially include human intelligence and information that, if disclosed, could jeopardize relations between the U.S. and other nations, as well as the lives of intelligence operatives abroad. However, the classification also encompasses national security information related to the daily operations of the president of the United States.
The Justice Department will argue that most of the material is too sensitive from a national security standpoint for a special master to review. There’s likely to be more wrangling about what exactly the special master can review. But it’s probable that we’ll be able to see how far afield the FBI was wandering to dig up something criminal on Trump.
Cannon also ordered the Justice Department to file under seal a “particularized notice indicating the status” of its review of the seized property, “including any filter review conducted by the privilege review team and any dissemination of materials beyond the privilege review team.”
Cannon also said that the Justice Department should include in its filings its “respective and particularized positions on the duties and responsibilities of a prospective special master, along with any other considerations pertinent to the appointment of a special master in this case.”
Seizing any documents protected by executive privilege or attorney-client privilege would be illegal and would force the judge to declare the search illegal and all materials that were taken inadmissible as evidence.
It’s not likely that the FBI would have taken communications that could be construed as falling under the executive privilege statute, but the chance they may have taken documents that would fall under attorney-client privilege is fairly high, given the number and breadth of investigations Trump has been subjected to.
Anything a special master finds is unlikely to change the trajectory of the government’s investigation. But it may tell us a lot more about the true scope of the raid and just how far afield the FBI went in its effort to find dirt on the former president.
Source: PJ Media
