Judge grants Trump’s request for special master to review documents seized from Mar-a-Lago
In a legal victory for former U.S. president Donald Trump, a federal judge on Monday granted his request for a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from his Florida home and also temporarily halted the Justice Department’s own use of the records for investigative purposes.
About time.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon authorizes an outside expert to review the records taken during the Aug. 8 search and to weed out from the rest of the investigation any that might be protected by claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege. Some of those records may ultimately be returned to him, but the judge put off a ruling on that question.
Correct, the returning of ALL documents that are protected by claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege should be returned.
Also, any copies or notes taken of those records by the FBI/DOJ or any other while those documents are in their possession should also be destroyed.
The order came despite the strenuous objections of the Justice Department, which said an outside legal expert was not necessary in part because officials had already completed their review of potentially privileged documents.
In this world of a politicized government agencies (potential or actual) an independent/neutral third party IS A MUST.
… judge’s directive that the Justice Department may not for the moment use any of the seized materials as part of its investigation into the illegal storage of government secrets at the Florida property. That injunction is in place until the yet-to-be-named special master completes his or her work, “or further court order.”
Absolutely!
(the federal judge) said she found persuasive his lawyers’ arguments that he faced potentially “irreparable injury” by being denied access to records that might be of significant personal interest to him. She said the investigative process had, so far, been “closed off” to him.
“As a function of plaintiff’s former position as president of the United States, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own,” Cannon wrote. “A future indictment, based to any degree on property that ought to be returned, would result in reputational harm of a decidedly different order of magnitude.”
Which might also be part of the game. Stain POTUS reputation even if no criminal charges are ever made, ruining or making any chance of a second run as POTUS all the more difficult… just like what the dems want.
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