Judge GRANTS Trump’s request to have a special master review documents seized in Mar-a-Lago raid - as its revealed FBI agents took medical records from ex-President’s home

Daily Mail ^ | September 5, 2022 | Geoff Earle

[SamAdams76]

A federal judge in Florida has granted Donald Trump's request to have a special master review the documents seized during the raid on Mar-a-Lago – granting a key demand of the former president and tapping the breaks on the government's investigation.

Judge Aileen Cannon approved Trump's motion to appoint 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.'

The Trump-appointed judge also 'temporarily enjoins' the government from 'reviewing and using the seized materials' pending the completion of the review.

That grants Trump and his legal team a side benefit of stalling the fast-moving proceedings that have unfolded since the August 8 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago.

[StAnDeliver]

The footnotes are the most enlightening part of the Order. Some of them are extraordinary in smacking down the FBI/DOJ/ZOMBIEREGIME and laying miles of groundwork for what may be an abrupt Order of Dismissal:

• Page 4, note 2:" Based on the Detailed Property Inventory, of the approximately 11,000 documents seized, roughly 100 contain classification markings [ECF No. 39-1 pp. 2–8]."

• Page 10, note 1: "When asked about the dissemination to the media of information relative to the contents of the seized records, Government’s counsel stated that he had no knowledge of any leaks stemming from his team but candidly acknowledged the unfortunate existence of leaks to the press."

• Page 12, note 1: "At the hearing, the Government argued that the equitable concept of “unclean hands” bars Plaintiff from moving under Rule 41(g), citing United States v. Howell, 425 F.3d 971, 974 (11th Cir. 2005) (“[I]n order for a district court to grant a Rule 41(g) motion, the owner of the property must have clean hands.”). Howell involved a defendant who pled guilty to conspiring to distribute cocaine and then sought the return of $140,000 in government-issued funds that were seized from him following a drug sale to a confidential source. Id. at 972–73. That case is not factually analogous to the circumstances presented and does not provide a basis to decline to exercise equitable jurisdiction here. Plaintiff has not pled guilty to any crimes; the Government has not clearly explained how Plaintiff’s hands are unclean with respect to the personal materials seized; and in any event, this is not a situation in which there is no room to doubt the immediately apparent incriminating nature of the seized material, as in the case of the sale of cocaine.

• Page 15, note 1: "In explaining these incidents at the hearing, counsel from the Privilege Review Team characterized them as examples of the filter process working. The Court is not so sure. These instances certainly are demonstrative of integrity on the part of the Investigative Team members who returned the potentially privileged material. But they also indicate that, on more than one occasion, the Privilege Review Team’s initial screening failed to identify potentially privileged material. The Government’s other explanation—that these instances were the result of adopting an overinclusive view of potentially privileged material out of an abundance of caution—does not satisfy the Court either. Even accepting the Government’s untested premise, the use of a broad standard for potentially privileged material does not explain how qualifying material ended up in the hands of the Investigative Team. Perhaps most concerning, the Filter Review Team’s Report does not indicate that any steps were taken after these instances of exposure to wall off the two tainted members of the Investigation Team [see ECF No. 40]. In sum, without drawing inferences, there is a basis on this record to question how materials passed through the screening process, further underscoring the importance of procedural safeguards and an additional layer of review. See, e.g., In re Grand Jury Subpoenas, 454 F.3d 511, 523 (6th Cir. 2006) (“In United States v. Noriega, 764 F. Supp. 1480 (S.D. Fla. 1991), for instance, the government’s taint team missed a document obviously protected by attorney-client privilege, by turning over tapes of attorney-client conversations to members of the investigating team. This Noriega incident points to an obvious flaw in the taint team procedure: the government’s fox is left in charge of the appellants’ henhouse, and may err by neglect or malice, as well as by honest differences of opinion.”)."

• Page 16, note 1: "The Government implies that additional independent review for attorney-client privilege, such as by a special master, is appropriate only when a search of a law firm occurred [ECF No. 48 pp. 30–32]. Whatever the extent of this argument, it fails decisively here. True, special masters ordinarily arise in the more traditional setting of law firms and attorneys’ offices. But the Court does not see why these concerns would not apply, at least to a considerable degree, to the office and home of a former president. Moreover, at least one other court has authorized additional independent review for attorney-client privilege outside of the law firm context, in politicized circumstances. See In re Search Warrant dated November 5, 2021, No. 21-Misc-813, 2021 WL 5845146, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 8, 2021) (appointing a special master to conduct review of materials seized from the homes of employees of Project Veritas for potentially attorney-client privileged materials)."

• Page 17, note 1: "On the current record, having been denied an opportunity to inspect the seized documents, Plaintiff has not formally asserted executive privilege as to any specific materials, nor has the incumbent President upheld or withdrawn such an assertion."

[Jim W N]

I don’t know them but I know that Trump could have been getting better advice on some things than he’s been getting.

[matthew fuller]

Written by a genuine Earl, no less.

[SamAdams76]

Interesting comparison between Trump and David (of the Bible).

Recently we saw a performance of "David" at the Sight and Sound theater in Ronks, PA (just outside Lancaster). Highly recommended if you are in the area. The equal of any NYC Broadway show and plus you have animals running up and down the aisles, which is pretty unique in theatre.

[SamAdams76]

No problem

[popdonnelly]

Criminal charges against Trump are off the table for now.

[David Chase]

I like Trump, voted for him, donated a good amount of money to his Campaign.

I have seen comparisons made about Trump to Moses, King David, even Jonas.

Trump is a 21st Century American politician who was a great President and the history book on Trump isn’t finished yet.

But comparing Trump to important Bible figures is extreme and steps into cult territory.

Be a fan, be a supporter. Be the biggest fan and supporter. But Biblical? That’s too much.

[AAABEST]

Great post, thank you.

Nice having FReepers around who read stuff.

[Vermont Lt]

This should have been expected. And really means nothing in the long run.

A special master, even dragging their ass, shouldn’t take more than 60 days. I assume the FBI gets docs as they are cleared. At the same time, Trump gets back “his stuff.”

But documents created during his term in his function as President are not his.

If his annual government check up, done at Walter Reed by military docs, is in that bunch of things….it IS the property of the government. They would need to treat it first under HIPPA, then under NARA rules.

The thing is that a lot of commentators haven’t read the rules and they equate the FBI c9ming into their homes and taking their documents. They assume Hillary is treated under the same Presidential records acts.

The goal here isn’t to put Trump in jail. The goal is to make him seem unPresidential. And silly things like proper treatment of historical documents is one way to do that.

So, instead of an indictment coming out in October, it will come out in November.

So, while this seems like a Trump victory…it’s not that big of a deal.

[SamAdams76]

Thank you for posting these footnotes to the court order.

The witch hunt against President Trump needs to get shut down. The Feds definitely overreached.

[David Chase]

They need to pick a Master……the clock starts ticking.
Then the Master needs to sift through all the seized items and documents alone without a team……tick….tick….tick.

Then BooYa! Midterm election arrives and this political raid is a dud as the Master isn’t finished before then.

[CJ Wolf]

How do you do special Master? Sounds like a cool job.

Trump rope a dope. How do you introduce evidence?

[TiGuy22]

May I suggest Bill Barr or Jeff Sessions for Special Master...

Or, maybe Durham for expediency? 😂🤣

[rfp1234]

Sandra Day O’ Connor. If still alive.

[LegendHasIt]

As if the FIB / DO(in)J hasn’t already stolen everything they can use against Trump and destroyed anything exculpatory.

Doing it this late, is like locking the barn door after the horses escaped and a bunch of of skunks, rats and weasels have moved in.

[usconservative]

How does this even matter after the FBI said it’s already been thru all the documents they seized??

[Steven W.]

Particularly noting, the relevant statute, the Presidential Records Act, is not a criminal statute and ones that purportedly are do not have any relevance to a former POTUS and powers of DECLAS. Let the unveiling commence!

[Macho MAGA Man]

The order, though, “shall not impede the classification review and/or intelligence assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (“ODNI”) as described in the Government’s Notice of Receipt of Preliminary Order.”
———————————
Does this mean they can re-classify stuff as “classified” and “TS”, etc? If they reclassify, does that mean Trump can’t use the reclassified docs in his suit against Hillary?

[Macho MAGA Man]

I like the sound of Emperor Trump!

[David Chase]

The Master will remove items or documents that are not vital to the DOJ’s investigation.
This means the fishing trip ends.
It’s means that if there isn’t a case against Trump, why did the raid even happen and why did the FBI collect non related materials?

Also this prevents any planned stunts the DOJ are planning before the midterms. The Master must go through all items and documents alone without a team…….it will take months.

The whole thing is shut down and completely backfired.
This was suppose to be an October surprise for the midterms.
It’s not gonna be now.