A federal judge on Monday granted former President Donald Trump’s request to appoint a special master to review the trove of documents seized during the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago last month, saying some of the materials were medical or tax-related.
The decision by US District Judge Aileen Cannon is a win for Trump and his legal team –and came despite objections from the Justice Department, which argued it had already completed a review of potentially privileged documents.
In her ruling, Cannon agreed to appoint a special master — an independent third party — to review the boxloads of personal items, documents and material seized in the FBI’s Aug. 8 raid on Trump’s home that may potentially be subject to claims of attorney-client or executive privilege.
“In addition to being deprived of potentially significant personal documents, which alone creates a real harm, plaintiff faces an unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public,” Cannon wrote in her ruling.
