DOJ Appeals Decision to Review Evidence in Mar-a-Lago Search

According to a statement released on Thursday, the Justice Department (DOJ) is contesting the results of a special master’s assessment of the records obtained by the FBI at the Florida property of former President, Donald Trump.

The Justice Department is also requesting that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump employee who issued the special master’s order, temporarily halt a portion of that order. According to the prosecutors, the government has halted the review of classified documents by the intelligence community.

The actions were taken three days after Cannon granted Trump’s request for a special master to search the confiscated materials for personal goods and documents covered by executive privilege or the attorney-client privilege.

According to the DOJ, the FBI seized more than 100 classified documents during the search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8. However, the government has claimed in its request for the partial stay with Cannon that it was impossible to distinguish between the review by the intelligence community and the FBI’s criminal investigations.

“The application of the injunction to classified records would consequently frustrate the government’s potential to conduct a effective national security risk assessment and classification review and could possibly preclude the government from proceeding necessary remedial steps in light of that review risking harm that is not redeemable to our national security and intelligence interests,” the DOJ wrote.

The appointment of a special master, a neutral lawyer given responsibility for analyzing the evidence and picking out protected papers, had been fiercely contested by the Justice Department. Given the internal DOJ filtering techniques that had been employed in the search, the agency contended to Cannon that an independent assessment wasn’t required. It would, according to prosecutors, obstruct both the intelligence community’s assessment of national security danger and the criminal probe into the handling of White House materials.

Cannon blocked the DOJ’s use of the confiscated materials for the criminal investigation in her Monday decision, which approved Trump’s request for the special master. But she said that the assessment by the intelligence community might go on. On Thursday, the Justice Department declared that Cannon’s order conflicted with the inquiry.

“The injunction opposed to using classified records in the criminal investigation could hinder efforts to identify the existence of any more classified records that are not being stored properly — which itself presents the potential for ongoing risk to national security,” DOJ said on Thursday.

In addition to the concerns about attorney-client privilege that are typically the focus of a special master, Cannon had also ordered that the independent examination seeks materials that may be protected by executive privilege.

The Justice Department and outside legal experts both characterized the action as unique, and it has the potential to delay the review because Cannon’s injunction continues to obstruct the criminal investigation.

Two weeks after the search warrant was carried out at his Mar-a-Lago home and club, Trump filed the petition asking for the special master. The FBI is looking into possible Espionage Act violations, criminal mismanagement of federal documents, and obstruction of justice, according to submissions the Justice Department filed to the magistrate judge who approved the order.

Trump’s legal team and the Justice Department have been instructed by Cannon to submit legal filings outlining their suggested special master candidates and suggestions for how the review ought to proceed.
The order states that the examination will include documents protected by presidential privilege, a legal limbo that has likely been the subject of the case’s most acrimonious arguments.

The prosecutors have warned Cannon that they would ask the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals to get involved if she did not approve their motion to delay some of their rulings by September 15.

Written By Lance Santoyo
Edited by Sheena Robertson

Sources:

CNBC: DOJ appeals decision to appoint special master in Trump FBI raid document case.

Washington Post: Justice Dept. appeals Cannon’s order for a Mar-a-Lago special master.

CNN: DOJ appeals decision to order special master to review evidence seized in Mar-a-Lago search and says it’s halted intelligence review.

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