A federal judge was told Monday by the Department of Justice that “limited” material had been found that might be protected under the attorney-client privilege during a preliminary examination of boxes taken in an Aug. 8 raid at former Mar-a-Lago.
An ex-President Donald Trump made a motion with Judge Aileen McCannon last week to require the DOJ’s appointment of a “special master,” an independent authority that would examine the materials seized to determine if they are subject to attorney-client privilege, executive privilege, or both (which, as it turns out, President Joe Biden claims to have waived).
Although the DOJ opposed the appointment of a special master, Judge Cannon stated that she would agree with Trump.
On Monday, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Juan Antonio Gonzalez and FBI Counterintelligence Chief Jay Bratt signed a submission to the court that stated that the DOJ’s “Privilege Review Team” had already “identified a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information, completed its review of those materials, and is in the process of following the procedures … to address potential privilege disputes.” It did not mention executive privilege, nor did it explain whether DOJ investigators had yet had access to those materials, despite pending claims of privilege by Trump.
Politico‘s Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney suggested in their report on the DOJ submission that Trump’s request may be “too late,” though they did not cite any legal authority that would justify violating the former president’s legal rights simply if the DOJ, with a surprise search warrant, reviewed the materials faster than Trump could mount a legal defense to protect them.
Last week, the media reported that Trump was having trouble finding lawyers to represent him — a possible reason for the delay. According to reports, Trump’s lawyers weren’t sure if they would pay them. However, the media did not report that Trump lawyers had been forced to testify before the Jan 6 Committee due to Bar aggressive complaints.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. PST). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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