Judge Suspends DOJ Investigation of Trump, Grants Special Master Request

Another Victory for the Ex-President TRUMP….

A federal judge in Florida approved former President Donald Trump\’s request Monday for a special master to review documents seized during a search of his estate Mar-a-Lago, which included secret and top-secret records, and temporarily halted the Justice Department\’s criminal investigation of the records.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon authorized the appointment to review the documents for potential claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege, or to prevent government lawyers from reading those documents.

Justice Department lawyers have said they already reviewed the documents for Trump\’s claims of attorney and executive privilege, but they opposed halting the use of documents for the investigation of possible crimes.

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Cannon ruled that the director of national intelligence could continue to review the documents to determine risks to national security.

\’Reputational harm\’: Judge who ordered Mar-a-Lago special master cites risk of stigma for Trump

\”The Court hereby authorizes the appointment of a special master to review the seized property for personal items and documents and potentially privileged material subject to claims of attorney client and/or executive privilege,\” Cannon ruled.

Cannon ruled that Trump had shown public and private interests at stake in the case supported a temporary halt to the government’s investigative use of the documents.

“As Plaintiff articulated at the hearing, the investigation and treatment of a former president is of unique interest to the general public, and the country is served best by an orderly process that promotes the interest and perception of fairness,” Cannon wrote.

The Justice Department said it was reviewing the decision. \”The United States is examining the opinion and will consider appropriate next steps in the ongoing litigation,\” department spokesman Anthony Coley said.

Trump said the Justice Department and FBI were being pushed to do the wrong thing by \”sinister outside sources.\”

\”Remember, it takes courage and \’guts\’ to fight a totally corrupt Department of \’Justice\’ and the FBI,\” Trump said in a statement.

Cannon asked lawyers for Trump and the Justice Department to jointly submit a list of names of potential special masters by Sept. 9. She postponed a decision on whether to order the return of the documents to Trump.

FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 to find evidence of potential crimes such as the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice. The search followed months of negotiations between lawyers for Trump and the government to return documents to the National Archives and Records Administration or other government agencies.

Trump returned 15 boxes in January, but federal authorities determined more Trump administration documents remained at Mar-a-Lago. FBI agents retrieved more classified documents with a subpoena on June 3.

Cannon released a detailed list Friday of where sensitive documents were found at Mar-a-Lago, in a storage room and in Trump\’s office. The list described classified documents with unmarked government records, photographs and even articles of clothing in a haphazard manner.

But government officials described the classified materials as some of the most sensitive secrets the government holds about intelligence gathering and human sources of information.

Cannon ruled that Trump risked substantial reputational damage from the government keeping and potentially using privileged documents.

\”As a function of Plaintiff’s former position as President of the United States, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own,\” Cannon wrote. \”A future indictment, based to any degree on property that ought to be returned, would result in reputational harm of a decidedly different order of magnitude.\”

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has granted former President Donald Trump\’s request for a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago last month, temporarily stopping federal prosecutors from using those documents in their investigation into obstruction and mishandling of government secrets.

The decision was expected. Last weekend, the judge said she was inclined to grant Trump\’s request, and a hearing on the matter took place last Thursday. At that hearing, the Justice Department laid out its argument against the special master and signaled it was likely to appeal such a ruling.

Aileen Cannon is the federal judge presiding over a hearing in the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. She approved a request from former President Donald Trump attorneys to appoint a special master in the investigation and place restrictions on investigators.

Cannon was appointed by Trump to her position as U.S. District Court Judge in 2020. On Thursday, September 1, 2022, she heard from Trump attorneys asking she place restrictions on investigators.

Cannon, cited in her order on Monday the need to ensure \”the appearance of fairness and integrity under the extraordinary circumstances presented.\”

A special master is an independent third party, typically an attorney, appointed by the judge to review materials seized in a search for anything that may be protected from investigation by attorney-client privilege, or executive privilege as Trump is claiming.

The judge also ordered the government to cease any review or use of the materials for its criminal investigation until the special master review is completed, but Cannon said the intelligence community may continue its review to determine potential national security risks from the classified material being kept outside of a secure government facility.

Cannon set a deadline of Fri. Sept. 9 for the two parties to submit a joint filing with a list of proposed candidates to be named special master and a detailed proposal to establish the duties and limits of the special master, as well as a schedule for the review and compensation.

Legal experts have told NPR that requesting a special master is another attempt from Trump to undermine the work of the Justice Department and question their integrity. But others have argued that it will just be another procedural loophole the department has to go through during their investigation into the documents.

On Friday, Cannon unsealed a list of items the FBI seized from former President Trump\’s Mar-a-Lago home during a court-authorized search last month.

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Previous documents filed in court by the Department of Justice revealed that Trump was holding several classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, and the DOJ has raised questions on whether Trump and his team attempted to obstruct justice by concealing or removing some of the documents authorities wanted.

Trump\’s attorneys have downplayed the Justice Department\’s concerns about the classified material found at Mar-a-Lago, saying in a filing Wednesday that there was no \”cause for alarm.\”

View Master Order by Judge – Click Here

It would seem that Media critics was wrong again with claims that Trump’s request for a special master would be “too late,” since the DOJ already had the material for weeks. The judge disagreed, though she noted that questions about executive privilege or the Presidential Records Act would have to be filed and litigated in Washington, DC. Democrats are rolling in there graves after this victory because this will almost for sure grants a fair unbiased way to deal with, what has been Label as a Witch Hunt. This victory has created more unwanted momentum by the Trump Train to continue the Trump Supported Republican take over of Washington over the next 2 years. We consider this a true failure on the democrats to weaponize the DOJ and FBI to unfairly prosecute opposite party. This has now put extreme pressure on the democrats to figure out another way to stop the Ex-President from running for President in 2024.