The Trump-appointed judge rejected Justice Department arguments, stating that the unique nature of the case required an impartial review of documents seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago.
A federal judge granted former President Donald Trump’s request for a special master to oversee all of the evidence seized by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago estate last month, effectively shutting down parts of the Justice Department’s investigation.
In her ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Donald Trump appointee, stated that the special master should be able to review the seized documents to address issues of attorney-client privilege and to litigate executive claims privilege.
Government employees sifting through the documents had saved only those that might have been protected by attorney-client privilege, arguing that executive privilege was not at work here.
“In addition to being deprived of potentially significant personal documents, which alone creates a real harm, Plaintiff faces an unquantifiable potential harm by improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public,” she wrote.
Trump had asked for a special master, a third-party attorney, to review the material seized on August 8 to look for potential attorney-client or executive privilege violations.
In a recent court filing, Trump’s attorneys argued that “if left unchecked, the DOJ will impugn, leak, and publicize selective aspects of their investigation, with no recourse for [Trump] but to trust the self-control of currently unchecked investigators somehow.”
The Justice Department disputed that a special master was “unnecessary and would seriously harm important governmental interests, including national security interests.” In a statement issued Monday, Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said, “The United States is reviewing the opinion and will consider appropriate next steps in the ongoing litigation.”
Cannon allowed a national security review of the records to continue but temporarily blocked the government from reviewing and using them for its “investigative purposes.” She systematically rejected the Justice Department’s arguments that Trump’s special-master request was filed too late, that it was superfluous and that Trump had no right for review because he didn’t own the documents in question that were seized.
Cannon did not immediately grant Trump’s request to get back more of his property more quickly.
In a statement posted on his Truth Social website after the ruling, Trump attacked the Justice Department and the FBI as “totally corrupt.”
Even in ruling essentially for Trump, Cannon agreed with the government that there was no evidence of “callous disregard” for Trump’s constitutional rights.
“With respect to the first factor, the Court agrees with the Government that, at least based on the record to date, there has not been a compelling showing of callous disregard for Plaintiff’s constitutional rights,” Cannon wrote.
Cannon also said she was mindful of the historic nature of the case.
“The Court takes into account the undeniably unprecedented nature of the search of a former President’s residence,” she wrote, noting that Trump’s “former position as President of the United States, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own.”
“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,” she said.
Cannon also faulted how the |Justice Department’s filter team had examined the sensitive records, allowing them to be seen by a separate group of investigators.
The ruling “temporarily enjoins the Government from reviewing and using the seized materials for investigative purposes,” Cannon wrote, noting that the national security review can continue.
Trump had more than 11,000 government documents at his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, when the FBI executed the search warrant on August 8, according to a detailed list of the seized property.
At a minimum, more than 900 pages of government documents with classified markings were obtained from Mar-a-Lago in January, June, and August, though the actual number is much higher.
According to government records, federal investigators have seized or been given 60 documents marked “TOP SECRET,” 162 labelled “SECRET”, and 103 classified as “CONFIDENTIAL.” In addition, Trump had 48 empty folders with a “Classified Banner” and 42 more empty folders with the notation to “Return to staff secretary military aide.
