After court calls for an independent special master, the DOJ says their team is finished looking through seized materials
In a court filing on Monday, the Justice Department has announced they have already finished reviewing the documents seized from former U.S. President Donald Trump’s private residence, Mar-a-Lago.
The DOJ also stated that they identified a “limited set” of documents that could include information protected by attorney-client privilege.
The move comes on the heels of the court issuing a preliminary order to appoint a special master to go through the documents.
In a separate filing, the DOJ said they would provide more information—however, prior to the court issuing the preliminary order for a special master—a “privilege review team” already went through the documents.
Some officials say a special master is an independent, court-appointed individual who oversees how the documents are handled and reviewed. While a privilege review team is made up of federal personnel—not involved with the investigation—tasked with the role of identifying privileged information.
Many have questioned the timing of the unprecedented and controversial early morning raid on Trump’s exclusive beach club.
Trump’s team has argued that the government’s decision to carry out the raid on Aug. 8—mere months before November’s all-important midterm elections—”involved political calculations aimed at diminishing the leading voice in the Republican Party, President Trump.”
The FBI says it searched Mar-a-Lago as part of an investigation into whether Trump mishandled classified White House records.
Trump and his team continue to dispute the classification and say they believe the documents, information, and records have been declassified.
The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for Thursday at the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida.
