Former US President Donald Trump requested a federal judge to temporarily halt the FBI’s review of the records it took from his Florida property two weeks prior so that a special master could be appointed to supervise the review.
In addition, Trump’s motion, submitted in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, demanded that the US Justice Department give him a more thorough inventory of the property that the FBI had taken from his Mar-a-Lago residence during its search on August 8 and that it return any items that were not covered by the search warrant.
The complaint states that politics “cannot be allowed to undermine the administration of justice.” “Law enforcement serves as a cover for Americans. It continued, it cannot be employed as a tool for political ends.
It is occasionally possible to appoint a special master in highly sensitive cases to assess materials that have been seized and make sure that investigators are not looking at confidential information.
The US Attorney’s office in Manhattan asked for the appointment of a special master after FBI investigators had searched the residences of Michael Cohen and Rudy Giuliani, two of Donald Trump’s former attorneys.
US District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, whom Trump appointed to the bench, was responsible for handling Trump’s request. According to a Justice Department spokesman, prosecutors would submit their defence in court.
According to Anthony Coley, a spokesperson for the Justice Department, “the August 8 search warrant at Mar-a-Lago was authorized by a federal judge upon the required finding of probable cause.”
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the search warrant in US District Court in West Palm Beach, is debating whether to order the Justice Department to make a redacted copy of the affidavit outlining the grounds for the warrant’s probable cause to search Trump’s residence public.
The Justice Department challenged the affidavit’s release at a court hearing last week, claiming that it would give a “roadmap” of its investigation and possibly discourage witness cooperation.
Although he acknowledged that those were valid worries, Reinhart stated in a court statement that he wanted to look into whether there was a “less onerous alternative to sealing the entire document.”
The Justice Department must deliver a redacted copy of the document to Reinhart under seal by noon Thursday so he can potentially make it public.
Trump has been under investigation for one of the numerous federal and state investigations since his time in office, and his company saw a dramatic uptick on August 8 with the search of Mar-a-Lago.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland requested that the court provide a redacted copy of the search warrant and property receipt listing the things taken after Trump and his supporters complained in the media that the search was politically motivated.
The New York Times reported on Monday, citing numerous sources briefed on the situation, that the US government has seized more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, including material from the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the FBI. The papers include things the National Archives found in January and Trump’s aides sent the Justice Department in June, according to the newspaper.
The Justice Department and the former president’s advisors declined to respond immediately.
The search is a component of a federal inquiry into whether Trump improperly erased records after losing the presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden in January 2021.
At Mar-a-Lago, the FBI discovered 11 sets of classified documents, some of which were marked “top secret”—the highest classification level reserved for the most sensitive U.S. national security data, which can only be read in designated government facilities.
If Trump waited too long to request the appointment of a special master, it is uncertain.
Trump revealed an email he got from the head of counterintelligence at the Justice Department, Jay Bratt, on August 15 that had been redacted last week. In the email, Bratt said he had sent out a team of agents to “filter” privileged information.
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