Judge Has ‘Preliminary Intent’ to Name ‘Special Master’ to Review Confiscated Trump Records
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A federal judge said Saturday that she has “preliminary intent” to appoint a “special master,” as requested by former president Trump, to conduct an independent review of the records confiscated in the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid.
U.S. district judge Aileen Cannon scheduled a hearing for Thursday to consider whether to grant a “special master,” or a representative of the court who would single out the privileged material from the seized evidence. Cannon said she took the “exceptional circumstances presented” into account.
The U.S. government, the defendant in the litigation over the surprise search, has a deadline of Tuesday to publicly respond to Trump’s motion for judicial oversight and additional relief, including his request for a special master, according to the filing. Trump will then have a day to reply. A hearing on the Trump legal team’s motion will be held Thursday in a West Palm Beach courthouse.
Also by Tuesday, the government is mandated to submit a “Receipt for Property specifying all property seized pursuant to the search warrant executed on August 8, 2022.”
Trump filed the motion on Monday, arguing that the search of his Florida home so close to the 2022 midterm elections “involved political calculations aimed at diminishing the leading voice in the Republican Party, President Trump.” The lawsuit launched by Trump last week states that a special master is appointed in cases “involving the seizure of privileged and/or potentially privileged materials, [and] is needed to preserve the sanctity of executive communications and other privileged materials.”
The released search warrant shows that the FBI seized from the property roughly 20 boxes of items, binders of photos, a handwritten note, the executive grant of clemency for Roger Stone, as well as information about French president Emmanuel Macron. Among the 20 boxes included one set of documents marked as “Various classified/TS/SCI documents,” or very confidential information.
Trump’s lawsuit alleged that the FBI took other items, however, that were not authorized in the search warrant, including photos, handwritten notes, and his passports. The Department of Justice returned his passports earlier this month.
