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 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 and/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.
Cannon did not yet name a specific person to be the special master.
FBI agents seized records, notes, and other items from Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Aug. 8.
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.
Executive Privilege
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials have maintained that Trump cannot legitimately exert executive privilege claims because he is no longer in office, pointing to a determination by the acting U.S. archivist, but Cannon said she didn’t necessarily agree.
