- The federal judge of the Southern District of Florida, Aileen Cannon, denied the request of the Department of Justice, on a partial suspension of her ruling to continue reviewing and investigating material seized in the residence of Donald Trump
District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday night denied the Justice Department’s request for a partial stay of its ruling limiting the government’s investigation into how Donald Trump handled sensitive material at his Mar-a-Lago estate, to the awaiting a review by third parties of what the agents found in the former president’s house.
In issuing her order, the judge said she was unwilling to accept the government’s claims that more than 100 documents seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago were classified as “Secret,” “Top,” and “Secret.” / ICS”.
“The Court does not find it appropriate to accept the Government’s findings on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party in an expeditious and orderly manner,” Cannon wrote in her order.
According to specialists on the subject, Cannon’s rulings are giving Trump the opportunity to assert both the attorney-client privilege, as well as that of the executive, despite the fact that the former president’s legal representatives have not officially sought to assert any of the two in court.
“The Court declines to conduct a partial, subset-by-subset analysis of the seized property,” Cannon stressed, adding: “Indeed, if the Court were willing to accept the Government’s representations that selected portions of the seized materials are , without exception, government property not subject to any privilege, and did not think that a special master would serve a significant purpose, the Court would have denied Plaintiff’s special master request.”
His statement was accompanied by the appointment of federal judge Raymond Dearie as special master who will review the documents seized by the FBI from his Palm Beach residence, whom he urged to “prioritize the review” of the 100 documents with classification marks and asked him to complete your review of all documents by November 30.