In a victory for former President Donald Trump, a judge ruled that he and his legal team do not have to submit a declaration on whether the Justice Department planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago before they review the stash.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon overruled U.S. District Senior Judge Raymond Dearie, the special master she appointed, after he sought a sworn document from Trump’s legal team on whether or not the DOJ planted evidence. She also pushed back key deadlines for the third-party special master review of material seized.
“There shall be no separate requirement on Plaintiff at this stage, prior to the review of any of the Seized Materials, to lodge ex ante final objections to the accuracy of Defendant’s Inventory, its descriptions, or its contents. The Court’s Appointment Order did not contemplate that obligation,” Cannon wrote.
In her ruling, she took note of Trump’s lawyers’ concerns that their “current inability to access the Seized Materials” would prevent them from fully corroborating the DOJ’s inventory of records from Mar-a-Lago.
Dearie previously directed Trump’s legal team to identify materials that “were not seized from the premises on August 8, 2022.”
Last month, Trump posited the possibility on Truth Social that evidence may have been planted during the Aug. 8 raid. His legal team objected to Dearie’s request for a sworn statement or affidavit on listing planted material.
“The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago,” Trump wrote. “Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, ‘planting.’ Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out?”
Dearie, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, was one of two candidates Trump’s legal team suggested as a special master. Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, approved his request for a special master despite objections from the DOJ. Dearie and Trump’s legal team have butted heads numerous times in recent days.
Cannon also tweaked deadlines for the special master review. Trump’s legal team will now have until Oct. 5 to find a vendor to scan documents for review. The DOJ will have until Oct. 13 to share copies of the material and until Oct. 14 to give notice of completion. The completion date for the special master’s review was also bumped back to Dec. 16.
Trump’s lawyers sought a special master to ensure FBI agents did not take privileged material, such as communications with lawyers, during the August raid. The DOJ has previously admitted that its “Privilege Review Team” has found a “limited set” of materials, which may include privileged material in the confiscated document stash.
Over 11,000 documents, totaling about 200,000 pages of material, were collected during the raid on Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s lawyers revealed in a recent court filing. Approximately 100 pages bore classified markings, which ranged from “CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET information,” according to an affidavit for the raid.
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