Former US President Donald Trump requested a federal judge on Monday 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 U.S. 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.
“Politics cannot be allowed to impact the administration of justice,” the filing says. “Law enforcement is a shield that protects Americans. It cannot be used as a weapon for political purposes,” it added.
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 Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office requested the appointment of a special master after FBI agents had searched the residences of Michael Cohen and Rudy Giuliani, two of Donald Trump’s former attorneys.
U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, whom Trump appointed to the bench, was given responsibility for handling Trump’s request. Prosecutors would submit their defence in court, according to a Justice Department spokesman.
“The Aug. 8 search warrant at Mar-a-Lago was authorized by a federal court upon the required finding of probable cause,” Anthony Coley, Justice Department spokesman said.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the search warrant in U.S. 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.
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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 Thursday at noon so that he can potentially make it public.
One of the numerous federal and state investigations Trump is under investigation for from his time in office and in his company saw a dramatic uptick on August 8 with the search of Mar-a-Lago.
United States Attorney General Merrick Garland requested that the court release 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 U.S. administration 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 things Trump’s aides sent the Justice Department in June, according to the newspaper.
Both the Justice Department and the former president’s aides declined to comment right away.
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.
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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.