Disclaimer: This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge, just helped out President Trump.
She granted a request from Trump for a special master to review the items seized in the FBI’s raid on his Mar-A-Lago home.
The ruling will halt all reviews of the documents seized by the Department of Justice in its criminal investigation of Trump allegedly having classified documents and obstruction.
According to CNN, the ruling “orders a third-party attorney, from outside the government, be brought in to review the materials that were taken from Trump’s home and resort in Florida.”
“It also halts the Justice Department from continuing its review of the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago “pending completion of the special master’s review or further Court order.”
“Trump’s lawyers argued that a special master was needed because they don’t trust the Justice Department to fairly identify privileged materials that would need to be excluded from the ongoing criminal probe,” CNN said.
It is being reported that the Justice Department will file an appeal in the Eleventh Circuit to challenge the granting of a special master.
A special master is a court-appointed arbiter who would review the documents seized by the FBI from Trump’s estate on August 8.
Fox News reported:
On that point, it is curious that the former president did not seek the special master by filing a motion before Reinhart. One also wonders why, rather than appointing an outside lawyer (one who would have to have a high-security clearance to perform the special master duties in a case involving seizures of highly classified intelligence), Judge Cannon did not give the assignment to either Reinhart or one of the 15 other magistrate judges who sit in the Southern District of Florida.
Trump has colorably suggested that Reinhart is biased against him (because he recused himself from another litigation involving Trump). For its part, the Justice Department did not propose that the matter be referred to Reinhart or a different magistrate (because it believes the privilege-review process it unilaterally implemented, pursuant to Reinhart’s authorization, is sufficient). So the dispute has come down to whether a special master should be appointed, without much thought about other possible options.
The major controversy in the case, and what will likely drive DOJ to appeal, involves executive privilege.
Executive privilege is the power presidents have asserted to withhold information from Congress and the courts on the grounds that secrecy is essential sometimes in being president and certain presidential duties.
The Justice Department doesn’t agree that Trump can use executive privilege in this matter. They argue that a former president cannot assert the privilege against the very branch of government it is intended to protect.
