Former President Donald Trump’s push for a special master to oversee the Justice Department’s review of evidence gathered at Mar-a-Lago comes at a critical time when a hearing will begin soon. Thursdays upon request.
A federal judge signaled “preliminary intention” to approve the request, which could bring new complications to the DOJ’s closely watched investigation into White House documents Trump brought to his Florida residence.
This is What is a special master? and what that means for the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago:
What is a special master? A special counsel is a third-party attorney appointed by the court to oversee part of a certain case.
If appointed in the Trump case, the special employer would oversee the Justice Department’s review of evidence gathered from his beach club and filtering out privileged material that may have been seized during search.
Why does Trump want a special whole? Trump’s legal team widely debated that a special master was needed to ensure the Justice Department returned any of his personal documents seized during the Mar-a-Lago search.
The former president’s lawyers say his constitutional rights have been violated and that privileged documents may have been confiscated. But in the court filing, Trump did not explain exactly what he hoped a particular population would filter out, besides general allusions to “privileged and potentially privileged material.”
What is the position of the Ministry of Justice? The department has signaled that it is using an internal filter group to look at seized items, to separate documents that may require privileges.
DOJ said in a court application Second, they have identified a “limited set of documents” from a search of documents obtained from Mar-a-Lago that may contain material that is attorney-client privilege and is in the process of being processed. resolve disputes over privileges.
Judicial officials also confirmed that US intelligence officials are reviewing documents for classified documents.
Investigators referred to the work of a filtering team when they returned Trump private documents that were not part of the investigation, such as two expired passports and his diplomatic passport. he.
The Justice Department, in court documents, said it believed the evidence it gathered at Mar-a-Lago would aid its criminal investigation into the mishandling of federal records. , including defense documents, after Trump’s team brought boxes of files to Florida as he left office.
The investigation is also looking into possible obstruction of justice in the investigation.
