Officials reviewed documents obtained from Mar-a-Lago during an Aug. 8 search to see if they contained information protected by the attorney-client privilege, the filing states. The former president asked the court to appoint an independent official, known as a special master, to assess which documents can be read and which can be used in any action against him. But Monday’s filing by the government suggests that even if a Florida judge, Aileen Cannon, takes such a step, as she has indicated she is likely to do, it may be too late to prevent the Justice Department from to see all the material. The department said in its filing: “The Privilege Review Panel . . . has identified a limited set of materials that may contain privileged attorney-client information, has completed its review of those materials, and is in the process of . . .[of addressing]potential disputes over privileges, if any.” The filing also confirmed that the office of Avril Haines, the US Director of National Intelligence, is leading a security review of the documents to decide whether national security may have been compromised. Haynes wrote to congressional leaders last week to inform them of the investigation. The filing marks the latest setback in the legal battle between the administration and Trump. FBI agents surprised him and the rest of the world when they searched his property on August 8 as part of a previously undisclosed investigation into whether he might have broken the law by handling classified documents. The former president is also under scrutiny by a congressional committee for his role in instigating last year’s attack on the US Capitol and by a grand jury in Georgia looking into whether the state’s election laws were broken after 2020. election. The dispute over classified documents that the Justice Department says Trump took with him when he left office poses the most immediate legal threat.

The Justice Department last week revealed that material Trump had returned to the government at an earlier date included dozens of classified files, including 25 marked “top secret.” However, little is known about what was found during the August raid. Trump scored a legal victory over the weekend when Cannon, a judge he appointed during his presidency, said she intended to grant his request to appoint a special master to review the documents. Both sides will have a chance to argue whether such an official should be appointed during a hearing on Thursday.