See what the special master is and what it would mean for the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago. A special master is a third-party attorney appointed by a court to oversee part of a particular case. If appointed in Trump’s case, the special master would oversee the Justice Department’s review of evidence gathered from his beach club and filter out privileged material that may have been seized in the investigation.
Why does Trump want a special master?
Trump’s legal team has widely argued that a special master is necessary to ensure the Justice Department returns any of his personal documents seized during the Mar-a-Lago search. The former President’s lawyers say his constitutional rights were violated and that privileged materials may have been seized. But in court filings, Trump has not specified exactly what he hoped a special master would filter, other than general allusions to “privileged and potentially privileged material.” But generally speaking, it is not outside the legal norm for Trump to want a special master involved in the review of evidence seized from his Florida residence.
What is the position of the Ministry of Justice?
The department has already indicated that it uses an internal group of filters to screen the seized items, to separate out material that could be the subject of privilege claims. The DOJ said in a court filing Monday that it identified “a limited set of materials” from its search of documents obtained from Mar-a-Lago that may contain material covered by attorney-client privilege and is in the litigation process about privileges. officials also confirmed that US intelligence officials are reviewing the documents for classified material. Investigators have already cited the work of a team of filters when they returned to Trump private documents that would not have been part of the investigation, including two expired passports and his diplomatic passport. The Justice Department, in court documents, said it believes the evidence it collected at Mar-a-Lago will support its criminal investigation into the mishandling of federal records, including national defense material, after Trump’s team went through boxes of files in Florida when he left the office. The investigation is also looking into possible obstruction of justice in the investigation.
Where is the special main request?
U.S. District Court Judge Elaine Cannon in the Southern District of Florida has scheduled a hearing for Thursday to consider Trump’s request for a special master. In so doing, the court notified the parties that it had a “preliminary intention” to appoint the special master. Cannon said at the end of the order that it should not be interpreted as her final decision on the matter, and previously ordered Trump’s lawyers to explain their arguments for why the court has the ability to step in at this time, explaining exactly what Trump also asks if Trump’s special master motion was served on the Justice Department. CNN’s Katelyn Polantz, Kaitlan Collins, Tierney Sneed and Kara Scannell contributed to this report.
