OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
The FBI raid this month on the Trump family home in Florida was executed with a search warrant signed by
The FBI has said that they aimed at recovering what a magistrate judge said was “highly classified” documents in Trump’s possession.
The search was part of a criminal investigation into alleged “willful retention” of classified information, theft of government records, and obstruction of justice.
Former President Trump has said that he declassified the said documents before he left office.
Trump has also stated that the FBI has previously visited Mar-a-Lago to look at the storage of the documents, and only requested that an additional lock be installed on the storage room door.
Trump did have that lock installed.
The judge who approved the search warrant, Federal Judge Bruce Reinhart, has in the past reclused himself from a matter including the 45th president.
Former President Trump has stated that Reinhart should have reclused himself from this matter as well.
Trump has posted repeatedly on the raid, calling out the FBI for their behavior during the search.
“The FBI and others form the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago. Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking, or hopefully not, ‘planting’. Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out? Obama and Clinton were never raided, despite big disputes!”
Trump has also stated that the FBI “demanded’ that the CCTV cameras be turned off so that there would be no record of the search.
“They even demanded that the security cameras be turned off )we refused) but there was no way of knowing if what they took was legitimate, or was there a ‘plant’?” he posted.
Former President Trump has stated that the documents in his possession were all covered by either executive privilege or attorney/client privilege, and has cited the Presidential Records Act in his behalf.
On Sunday, Trump posted,” Federal Judge in Florida just took over the Presidential Records Act case, in cluding the unprecidented, unnecessary, and unannounced FBI/DOJ Raid (Break-In!) of my home, Mar-a-Lago.”
This past week, Trump has filed a motion asking for a “special master” to review the documents the FBI seized form Mar-a-Lago.
Cornell Law describes a “special master” as someone appointed by the court to carry out some sort of action on its behalf.
Cornell continues:
“Theoretically, a ‘special master’ is distinguished from a ‘master’.
A master’s function is essentially investigative, compiling evidence or documents to inform some future action by the court, whereas a ‘special master’ carries out some direct action on the part of the court.
It appears, however, that the ‘special master’ designation is often used for people doing purely investigative work, and that the simple ‘master’ designation is falling out of use.”
Special Masters are, then another court-appointed official who aids in accountability to the law.
Now, a federal judge has indicated agreement on Trump’s request for the special master.
A federal judge said Saturday she’s inclined to grant Donald Trump’s request to bring in an outsider to oversee the review of more than two dozen boxes of materials the FBI seized from the former president’s Florida estate earlier this month.
In her brief order, which she emphasized was not a final decision, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon also directed the Justice Department to produce by Tuesday “a more detailed” list of items seized from Trump’s residence on Aug. 8 as well as the status of the government’s ongoing review of those materials, which includes the use of a “filter team” to screen for attorney-client privileged records.
The judge’s two-page order giving “notice of [her] preliminary intent to appoint a special master in this case” came less than a day after Trump’s attorneys late Friday made a pitch for an independent review of the materials seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate and before prosecutors filed any reply.
Cannon, who was nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate about a week after his defeat in 2020, said she plans to hold a hearing Thursday in West Palm Beach on the former president’s request for a special master.
She typically convenes court in Fort Pierce, Fla., about an hour’s drive north of there.
Cannon gave no indication how she viewed Trump’s claims that the search was unnecessary and extreme. Politico reports.
Instead, she asked Trump to file a brief responding to the Justice Department’s produced list of seized materials.
She also asked both sides to describe specifically the role they envision for a special master.
And she asked DOJ to reveal the status of its filter review, and whether any investigators outside of the review team had seen the seized materials.
The Department of Justice declined to comment on the ruling.
Source: The Republic Brief