Judge grants Trump request for review of Mar-a-Lago docs, freezes criminal probe

A federal judge in Florida ruled Monday that a special master will review the documents seized in last month’s FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, granting the former president’s request and temporarily limiting the government’s criminal probe into the materials.

Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the federal bench by Trump in 2020, wrote in her 24-page order that the government will be prevented from examining the more than 10,000 items for “criminal investigative purposes” until the special master review is completed.

The decision, which appeared to place Trump on a pedestal as a former president, figured to slow prosecutors’ efforts. But it required that special master candidates be selected this week, and allowed the government to continue to use the materials for “intelligence classification and national security assessments.”

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Road to Majority conference Friday, June 17, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. (Mark Humphrey/)

Trump’s legal team requested in an Aug. 22 filing that an independent arbiter review the items taken from Mar-a-Lago. Cannon, in granting the review over the objections of the Justice Department, cited the potential “reputational harm” Trump would incur if indicted, and the “unprecedented nature of the search.”

“As a function of plaintiff’s former position as president of the United States, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own,” Cannon asserted in her order in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

In U.S. history, no former president has ever faced a law enforcement action comparable to the search carried out by FBI agents in Palm Beach on Aug. 8. Cannon wrote that the unusual circumstances demanded a “brief pause to allow for neutral, third-party review to ensure a just process with adequate safeguards.”

The Justice Department has been probing Trump’s handling of secret government records, which were mixed in at Mar-a-Lago with books, unclassified government materials and hundreds of news clippings, according to an inventory unsealed by the court on Friday.

This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and redacted by in part by the FBI, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8 search by the FBI of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The Justice Department says it has uncovered efforts to obstruct its investigation into the discovery of classified records at former President Donald Trump's Florida estate.

The inventory indicated that the FBI unearthed 18 top-secret documents, 31 documents carrying confidential classification markings and 48 empty folders marked as “classified.” It is unclear if the empty folders with “classified” markings suggested some materials sought by the federal government remained beyond its grasp.

A filing from the Justice Department that accompanied the inventory said the review of the documents was “not a single investigative step but an ongoing process in this active criminal investigation.”

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Cannon’s Labor Day order came as a victory for Trump, who has accused the government of carrying out a “sneak attack” on his Florida home. He crowed in a Monday post on his Truth Social platform that it “takes courage and ‘guts’ to fight a totally corrupt Department of ‘Justice’ and the FBI.”

In court, the Justice Department had argued that Trump lacked the standing to seek judicial relief, or to appeal to executive privilege, which shields confidential communication, over property that belongs to the federal government. The department also warned that the insertion of a special master into the case would infringe on national security interests.

Mar-a-Lago inventory shows top secret docs, news clippings, books — and empty ‘classified’ folders

The Justice Department said in a court filing last week that the government has an “urgent interest in continuing its review of these materials, both for purposes of its criminal investigation and to assess potential national security risks caused by improper storage of classified records.”

Cannon said in her order that intelligence and classification assessments by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence can continue. She also wrote that the government’s position that Trump has no claim to executive privilege “arguably overstates the law.”

It was not clear if the Justice Department would appeal the decision. “The United States is examining the opinion and will consider appropriate next steps in the ongoing litigation,” Anthony Coley, a department spokesman, said in a vague one-sentence statement on Monday.

Secret Service agents stand near one of the entrances to Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. (Andres Leiva/)

On Friday, William Barr, who served as attorney general under Trump and President George H.W. Bush, dismissed Trump’s special master request, telling Fox News that the “whole idea of a special master is a bit of a red herring.”

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“They have already gone through the documents,” he told the network. “I think it’s a waste of time.”

But Cannon took a different view. In her decision, she said the “exact details and mechanics” of the review will be determined “expeditiously,” setting a Friday deadline for both parties to submit a joint filing proposing special master candidates.

Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, said the intervention could amount to a “speed bump” in the probe. But he called Cannon’s order “unjustified and ill-considered,” saying that it ignores a wealth of precedent pointing against judicial interference in ongoing criminal investigations.

“I think her decision is most unfortunate,” Tribe said. “Whether the Department of Justice will in fact want to appeal it is a different and difficult question, because appeals can involve delay.”

With Dave Goldiner and Molly Crane-Newman