A federal judge announced on Saturday her “preliminary intent to appoint a special master” to review the records seized by the FBI during its unprecedented raid of his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month, At the request of former President Trump and his legal team, citing the “exceptional circumstances,”
On Monday evening, Trump and his legal team filed a motion asking for an independent review of the documents the FBI seized during its raid of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month. They claim the decision to search his private residence just months before the 2022 midterm elections “involved political calculations aimed at diminishing the leading voice of the Republican Party, President Trump.”
Judge Aileen M. Cannon of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida announced her decision on Saturday afternoon, citing the review of Trump’s filings and “the exceptional circumstances presented.”
In a filing on Saturday, Cannon stated that “pursuant to Rule 53(b) (1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Court’s inherent authority, and without prejudice to the parties’ objections,” the court intends to appoint a special master in the case.
On September 1 at 1:00 pm, a hearing will take place in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Moreover, Cannon demanded a response from the Justice Department by August 30 and a “more detailed Receipt for Property specifying all property seized pursuant to the search warrant executed on August 8, 2022” (to be provided “under seal”).
According to the most up-to-date property receipt, about 20 boxes worth of items were removed from the building by FBI agents. Among these items was a set of documents labeled “Various classified/TS/SCI documents,” which stands for top secret/sensitive compartmented information.
Human intelligence and information that, if disclosed, could threaten U.S. relations with other nations and the lives of intelligence operatives abroad may be contained in records covered by that government classification level.
National security information that pertains to the day-to-day operations of the United States president is, however, also covered by this classification.
The property receipt also revealed that FBI agents had gathered six sets of records: four sets of top secret papers, three sets of secret papers, and three sets of confidential papers.
Authorities started looking for illegal materials because they suspected a crime had been committed.
Federal law prohibits the following actions: 18 USC 793 (the collection, transmission, or loss of defense information); 18 USC 2071 (the concealment, removal, or mutilation of an individual or group of individuals); and 18 USC 1519 (the destruction, alteration, or falsification of records relating to federal investigations).
Claims of “gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information” are covered by the Espionage Act.
Trump and his team have argued that the records and information in question should not be classified and instead be made public.
A “particularized notice indicating the status” of the Justice Department’s 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,” was ordered filed under seal by Cannon.
The Justice Department’s “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,” as requested by Cannon, should be included in the filings.
In a motion filed Monday night, Trump asked for a special master to review the documents seized by the FBI during the raid. Some of the documents were marked as classified, while others were protected by attorney-client privilege.
Documents obtained by the FBI during the raid are currently being reviewed by a “taint” or “filter” team from the Department of Justice.
The FBI claimed in the heavily redacted affidavit that it had “probable cause to believe” that National Defense Information and other classified records would be found on the Mar-a-Lago property in addition to the ones he had already turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
The property receipt from the raid and the warrant that Reinhart signed authorizing the FBI to search Mar-a-Lago on August 5 were both unsealed by Reinhart earlier this month.
