FBI agents have finished examining potentially privileged documents seized in an Aug. 8 search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, according to a Justice Department court document Monday that could undercut the former president’s efforts to appoint a special master to review the files.
The “filter team” used by the Justice Department to sort through documents and remove any material that should not be reviewed by criminal investigators has completed its review, the brief filed by Justice Department prosecutors said. The filing comes in response to a decision Saturday by U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon to hold a hearing this week on Trump’s motion seeking the appointment of a special master.
The new government document says prosecutors will provide more information later this week. But in the meantime, he notes that even before the judge’s weekend decision, the filter team “identified a limited set of materials that potentially contained attorney-client inside information, completed the review of these materials and is in the process of following the procedures.” of the search warrant to handle any privilege disputes.
Trump’s legal team filed the request two weeks after the Aug. 8 search, calling the court-approved enforcement action a “surprisingly aggressive” politically motivated raid. Lawyers for the former president claimed that federal authorities seized records to which they were not legally entitled.
While the judge, who was appointed by Trump to her position in 2020, said she was inclined to appoint a special master, she also said her order “should not be interpreted as a final determination on the plaintiff’s motion.”
Trump’s secrets: How a records dispute led the FBI to search Mar-a-Lago
Federal authorities took about two dozen boxes of materials from Mar-a-Lago during the search, including 11 sets of classified documents, some of them classified as top secret. Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, told lawmakers in Congress on Friday that US intelligence analysts will conduct a review of classified materials to determine the potential risk to national security if the its content
Trump’s lawyers want a special master to return any information taken from Trump’s property that goes beyond the scope of the search warrant and to leave out any material that should be shielded from review by the Trump administration. government because of executive privilege.
In his ruling Saturday, Cannon ordered the Justice Department to release under seal a more detailed list of the materials the FBI had taken. He also asked for an update on the federal government’s review.
In the past, special masters have generally been appointed in cases of attorney-client privilege, not executive privilege.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents and the ‘myth’ of the presidential security clearance
According to a partially redacted affidavit, unsealed Friday, agents conducting the Mar-a-Lago search were looking for all “physical documents and records that constitute evidence, contraband, proceeds of crime or other items in possession unlawful in violation of three potential felonies.”, including a section of the Espionage Act that prohibits the collection, transmission or loss of national defense information. The order also cites the destruction of records and the concealment or mutilation of government material.
The search is part of a criminal investigation into whether Trump and his aides took classified government documents and failed to return them all, despite demands from senior officials.