Judge Grants Trump Motion for Special Master to Review Records Seized by FBI
By Zachary StieberSeptember 5, 2022 Updated: September 5, 2022
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A U.S. judge on Sept. 5 agreed to insert a special master into the review process for records seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida home.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, ordered the appointment of a special master to review the seized property for items and documents that may be covered by attorney-client or executive privilege.
“In addition to being deprived of potentially significant personal documents, which alone creates a real harm, Plaintiff faces an unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public,” Cannon wrote in her 24-page order, released several days after a hearing in which she heard arguments from Trump’s lawyers and attorneys for the government.
“Further, Plaintiff is at risk of suffering injury from the Government’s retention and potential use of privileged materials in the course of a process that, thus far, has been closed off to Plaintiff and that has raised at least some concerns as to its efficacy, even if inadvertently so,” she added.
A special master is an independent third party who assists with sensitive cases.
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FBI agents seized records, notes, and other items from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Aug. 8.
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Cannon said she was swayed to side with Trump in part because the U.S. government’s filter team, which was supposed to identify all potentially privileged items, failed to do so.
“Those instances alone, even if entirely inadvertent, yield questions about the adequacy of the filter review process,” the judge said.
