Comment A federal judge said Saturday she is willing to grant former President Donald Trump’s request for an independent “special master” to review boxes of classified documents and other material taken by federal authorities from his Florida resort nearly three weeks. In a brief two-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon gave the government until Tuesday to present its arguments on the matter, while scheduling a hearing for Thursday in West Palm Beach, Florida. Trump’s legal team filed the request on Monday, asking the court to name an outside expert on the matter, calling the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago home politically motivated, overly broad and “shockingly aggressive.” The former president’s lawyers claimed that federal authorities seized records to which they were not legally entitled. Although the judge, who was nominated by Trump in 2020, appeared willing to appoint a special master, she said her order “should not be construed as a final determination of the Plaintiff’s motion.” The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Federal authorities took about two dozen boxes of materials from Mar-a-Lago during the investigation, including 11 sets of classified documents, many of which were classified as top secret. Avril Haines, the director of the National Intelligence Service, told congressional lawmakers on Friday that US intelligence analysts would conduct a national security assessment and declassification of the material. After Trump filed his initial request, Cannon had asked him and his lawyers to clarify what they were asking the court to do in their 27-page filing and address jurisdictional issues. In her ruling Saturday, Cannon ordered the Justice Department to submit under seal a more detailed list of the materials the FBI had obtained. He also asked for an update on the federal government’s assessment. Trump’s lawyers want a special master to return any information obtained from Trump’s estate that exceeded the scope of the search warrant and to set aside any material that should be protected from government scrutiny because of executive privilege. In the past, special masters were generally appointed in cases of attorney-client privilege, not executive privilege. Additionally, the FBI has had the files since August 8th and is reviewing them. Many of the documents require the highest levels of security permissions to view, so any master expert may need such permissions to review them. What the partially redacted Mar-a-Lago affidavit contains According to a partially redacted affidavit unsealed Friday, agents conducting the search sought all “physical documents and records that constitute evidence, contraband, proceeds of crime or other items unlawfully possessed in violation of three possible crimes,” including a part of the Espionage Act that prohibits the collection, transmission or loss of national defense information. The warrant also mentions the destruction of records and the concealment or mutilation of government material. The probe is part of a criminal investigation into whether Trump and his aides took classified government documents and failed to return them all, despite demands from senior officials. Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.
