The Department of Justice (DOJ) has already reviewed the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) raid earlier this month.
In a response filed on August 29 in response to President Donald Trump’s request to have a special master appointed to oversee the government review of items taken, the DOJ explained that “before the Court issued its Preliminary Order … [a team] completed its review of those materials.”
These reviewed documents include items that “potentially contain attorney-client privileged information.” The department is also conducting a “classification review” of the other materials alongside the Officer of the Director of National Intelligence.
This information from the DOJ came after District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered the government to respond to certain appeals in Trump’s motion and provide additional information concerning the status of the confiscated materials.
She further scheduled a hearing for the motion to appoint a special master on September 1 at 1 p.m. eastern time. Similarly, Cannon ordered the DOJ to submit under seal a “more detailed Receipt for Property specifying all property seized,” which has been done.
The original property receipt, released in conjunction with the warrant, contained almost exclusively undetailed item names such as “Binder of Photos” and “Handwritten note,” as reported by The Dallas Express.
The former president had previously moved to have a third-party special master appointed to oversee the process to help promote fairness and transparency in the proceedings. Additionally, Trump’s legal team requested a more detailed property receipt than what was initially provided, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
This admission could render Trump’s request for a special master moot as the documents have already been reviewed, or it could more acutely illustrate the necessity of such a step. Before the DOJ’s response, Judge Cannon signaled her “preliminary intent to appoint a special master in this case.”
Since the raid on August 8, public confidence in the FBI and DOJ has cratered significantly, as reported by The Dallas Express.
A study conducted by the Trafalgar Group and the Convention of States Action suggested that nearly 48% of independents believed that “the Department of Justice and the FBI are too political, corrupt, and not to be trusted.”
Meanwhile, nearly 49% of American voters said they believe the DOJ and FBI “are not telling the truth about their reasons for conducting the raid on President Donald Trump’s home.”
Recently, a heavily redacted copy of the affidavit allegedly justifying the raid was released after District Judge Bruce Reinhart instructed the DOJ to do so, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.