DOJ says some privileged documents identified in screening of seized Mar-a-Lago documents – By Kevin Johnson (USA Today) / Aug 29, 2022
The Justice Department filing comes after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon signaled her intent to appoint a special master to serve as a third-party screener of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago.
- The filing indicates federal authorities have assigned a so-called “privilege review team.”
- Trump lawyers wanted to halt document review until a special master was appointed.
- 184 classified documents were in a first tranche of 15 boxes recovered from Mar-a-Lago in January.
The Justice Department notified a federal judge Monday that authorities had identified a “limited set of materials” seized in this month’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate that may contain information protected by attorney-client privilege.
In a brief court filing, Justice officials said they had completed the review of those materials and are addressing any privilege “disputes.”
The Justice Department filing comes after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon signaled her intent to appoint a special master to serve as a third-party screener of documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.
But the new Justice filing indicates that federal authorities had already assigned a so-called “privilege review team” to do much the same thing that the Trump lawyers had requested: sorting and excluding material that may not be relevant or information that may be designated as privileged.
