The political raid on the Florida family home of Donald J. Trump last month shows a highly organized politicization of the raid and of both the FBI and DOJ because, in just three weeks’ time, the raid has sprung more leaks than have escaped from Special Counsel John Durham’s team over three years, as pointed out in an excellent new article in the Federalist.
And there is some pushback on the horizon.
“Special Master Order Reveals Biden’s Direct Involvement In Trump Raid And Six Other Bombshells,” Margot Cleveland reported for the outlet.
A federal judge on Monday granted former President Donald Trump’s request for the appointment of a special master to review the documents seized by the FBI during a raid on his Mar-a-Lago home last month.
Presiding Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, further held that the Department of Justice cannot review or use for criminal investigative purposes any material seized pending the review process.
Cleveland then laid out, in detail, the top seven takeaways from Cannon’s order that show Trump is being targeted. Here is a summary of her 7 points:
1. President Biden Was Directly Involved
“In including a quote in her order from a letter by Biden, Cannon cited the letter the NARA’s acting archivist sent to Trump’s lawyer.
That letter explained that Biden had decided to defer to the archivist’s “determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, regarding whether or not [the archivist] should uphold the former President’s purported ‘protective assertion of executive privilege.’”
Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall then explained in the letter that based on her consultation with the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, she had decided not to honor Trump’s claim of privilege.
While the media has previously highlighted those aspects of the letter, Monday’s order highlighted a key sentence in that same letter that went less noticed by the press: “NARA will provide the FBI access to the records in question, as requested by the incumbent President, beginning as early as Thursday, May 12, 2022” (emphasis added).”
2. Timeline of the Trump Targeting Is Suspect
A second significant detail revealed by Monday’s order concerns the timeline of events, which the court exposed by providing a clear chronology.
On May 10, 2022, the archivist informed Trump’s lawyers that the “NARA will provide the FBI access to the records in question, as requested by the incumbent President, beginning as early as Thursday, May 12, 2022.”
And on May 11, 2022, before the DOJ received possession of the 15 boxes from NARA, the DOJ “obtained a grand jury subpoena,” for “[a]ny and all documents or writings in the custody or control of Donald J. Trump and/or the Office of Donald J. Trump bearing classification markings.”
3. Not So Fast Joe — Trump’s Executive Privilege Can’t Be So Quickly Sidestepped
Another important detail from Monday’s order concerned the court’s handling of Trump’s request for a review of the seized material to address issues of “executive privilege.”
In opposing Trump’s request for a special master, the Biden administration argued that Trump lacked the right to assert “executive privilege” against the current executive branch. The court concluded that the Biden administration’s “position arguably overstates the law,” noting that the Supreme Court has not “rule[d] out the possibility of a former President overcoming an incumbent President on executive privilege matters.”
4. Members of the Investigative Team Saw Confidential Attorney-Client Documents
While the Biden administration had not reviewed the seized documents to assess any potential executive privilege concerns, a Privilege Review Team had screened the material to determine if it is protected by attorney-client privilege.
Because it had already screened the material, the government objected to the appointment of a special master to conduct “another round of screening,” arguing in essence, that such screening would be “unnecessary.”
5. DOJ Seized a Lot of Personal Material
“Another revelation from Monday’s order concerned the amount of personal material the FBI seized. The Government’s inventory reflects a seizure of approximately 11,000 documents and 1,800 other items from Plaintiff’s residence,” the court wrote.
Of the material seized, the court said approximately 100 documents contained classification markings. But the FBI also seized some 500 pages of material potentially protected by attorney-client privilege, medical documents, correspondence related to taxes, and accounting information.”
6. FBI Suggested Trump Committed a Crime by Returning a Torn-Up Document to the NARA
The sixth revelation came not directly from the court’s opinion but from the government filings referenced in Monday’s order and specifically the DOJ’s response brief in opposition to Trump’s request for the appointment of a special master.
7. Leaks Look Bad Too
In granting Trump’s request for the appointment of a special master, Cannon stressed that the special master would help maintain institutional trust in a case heavily politicized. She further noted that a special master would serve to ensure “the integrity of an orderly process amidst swirling allegations of bias and media leaks.”
Here, the court noted that “when asked about the dissemination to the media of information relative to the contents of the seized records, Government’s counsel stated that he had no knowledge of any leaks stemming from his team but candidly acknowledged the unfortunate existence of leaks to the press.”