Former President Donald Trump is pursuing the appointment of a special master to review independently the evidence that the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago home, and a federal judge has indicated she may grant his request.
Last week, lawyers for the former president filed a motion requesting the appointment of a special master to assess the records, arguing that the raid of his Palm Beach golf club and winter residence was a “shockingly aggressive move.” The filing came two weeks after Trump was raided by the bureau, and a judge indicated this weekend that she was leaning toward granting Trump’s request.
“The documents seized at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022, were seized from President Trump and were created during his term as president. Accordingly, the documents are presumptively privileged until proven otherwise,” Trump’s attorneys argued last week. “Only an evaluation by a neutral reviewer, a special master, can secure the sanctity of these privileged materials.”
DOJ FOUND POTENTIAL ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGED INFO AFTER MAR-A-LAGO RAID
A special master is typically a third-party attorney appointed by a judge to conduct independent oversight for a specific part of a case or controversy. It remains to be seen what effect a special master could have on the FBI’s review of evidence, though it is possible it could slow it down. The judge would likely need to make a ruling related to the special master’s ability to access and review classified information, if one is appointed.
The Justice Department had already said it is using a “filter team” or a “taint team” to review any privileged information and sift out evidence outside the scope of the warrant, but Trump’s lawyers argued that a “DOJ filter team will not protect President Trump’s rights” and that a special master was needed.
If the federal court ultimately decides to pick a special master related to the Mar-a-Lago saga, they would likely have the power to supervise or scrutinize the way the Justice Department and FBI are handling and reviewing the information seized from Trump’s Florida resort home and would likely play a role in overseeing whether DOJ is properly filtering out evidence obtained during the search that exceeds the scope of the warrant or is otherwise privileged.
REDACTED AFFIDAVIT JUSTIFYING MAR-A-LAGO RAID RELEASED
The federal rules also say a judge “must consider the fairness of imposing the likely expenses on the parties and must protect against unreasonable expense or delay” when considering the appointment of a special master.
Once appointed, a special master generally may “regulate all proceedings” and “take all appropriate measures to perform the assigned duties fairly and efficiently” while also being able to “exercise the appointing court’s power to compel, take, and record evidence” if conducting an evidentiary hearing. Those selected to be special masters are often retired judges or specialized lawyers.
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon said in a Saturday order that she was providing notice of her “preliminary intent to appoint a special master in this case” and noted the decision was made due to the “exceptional circumstances presented.” Cannon was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2020, and before that, she had worked at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of Florida since 2013.
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The heavily redacted affidavit justifying the FBI’s August search was also publicly released by the Justice Department last Friday after a ruling by Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who had signed the Aug. 5 warrant for the Aug. 8 raid. The affidavit revealed the investigation “began as a result of a referral” from the National Archives to the Justice Department on Feb. 9.
Federal investigators have said the items seized at Mar-a-Lago by the FBI earlier this month included “various classified/[top secret]/[sensitive compartmented information] documents,” among other records.
