Legal Experts Slam Donald Trump's Special Master for Mar-a-Lago Document Review
Former President Donald Trump has been granted by a federal judge his request to get a special master to review the seized government documents in his Mar-a-Lago estate last August.
However, legal experts have criticized this move - noting that Trump's special master simply didn't make sense considering the premise and the nature of the situation.
Investigation using the seized Mar-a-Lago documents has been put on hold following the judicial grant to get a special master for the document review.
Legal Experts Slam Donald Trump's Special Master
Among the first persons to express his disapproval was an unlikely former White House official - Trump's Attorney General Bill Bar.
Speaking to Fox News recently Bill Bar was not the one to defend his former boss as he explicitly said that Trump was "wrong" in requesting an independent third-party reviewer for the documents.
"The opinion, I think, was wrong. I think the government should appeal it. It's deeply flawed in a number of ways," Barr told Fox News.
For him, the special master review is just a "rain delay for a couple of innings" as the issue is not within the contents but with his alleged unlawful retention of the following items in his household.
Trump's team claims in a NARA letter that there is an executive privilege that he holds on the White House documents. However, the Supreme Court has already argued that Trump's claim for an executive privilege among the documents is a "serious and substantial concern."
To date, there is no law saying that a former official could hold privilege from something in his previous tenure.
READ ALSO : Florida: Here Are the Shocking Findings During the FBI Raid of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Home
Judge Aileen Cannon Grants Donald Trump the Special Master Request
In a 24-page letter publicized earlier this week, Judge Aileen Cannon of Southern Florida granted Donald Trump's request to get a special master to review the FBI-seized Mar-a-Lago documents which allegedly contain "potentially privileged material subject to claims of attorney-client and/or executive privilege."
Former Deputy Assistant General Harry Litman calls the order "perverse and potentially disastrous," per his Los Angeles Times column.
"The fundamental problem for Trump is that he has no "possessory interest" in the thousands of public documents he spirited away from the White House and then repeatedly refused to return. The law is clear that all documents related to his administration are owned and possessed exclusively by the United States. As the Justice Department argued in Cannon's courtroom, without possessory interest, Trump has no standing to ask for the return of government property," Litman elaborated.
Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee who granted the special master order is in hot water for the unlikely approval of his former boss' request.
Former prosecutor Rebecca Roiphe said in a statement to VICE News that what Cannon did "doesn't make any sense" as she disregarded basic legal categories just to reach the desired outcome of Trump.
Trump's team has until September 9 to submit a list to the Department of Justice of possible names of special masters that could be employed to do the review. Although the DOJ has yet to decide if it will honor the judicial opinion.
READ MORE : Donald Trump Special Master Allowed in Court to Review Mar-a-Lago Seized Documents | Here's What It Would Do
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Ivan Korrs
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