Trump Files Motion Seeking to Prevent DOJ Access to Mar-a-Lago Records Until ‘Special Master’ Appointed

Former President Donald Trump has filed a motion asking a federal judge to bar the Justice Department from reviewing documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago residence two weeks ago, until a third-party watchdog can be appointed.

In the first court motion from the Trump legal team since the FBI raid on the former president’s residence, the attorneys sought the appointment of a “special master,” a more detailed list of inventory taken, and the return of any item seized that was not within the scope of the search warrant, according to a filing on Aug. 22.

Special masters, often retired lawyers or judges, are appointed in certain cases where there is concern that materials seized by authorities include information that is protected by the attorney-client privilege or other forms of privilege. A special master was appointed in 2018 to review former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion and other felony charges later that year.

The FBI agents had taken “privileged and/or potentially privileged materials” such as photos, handwritten notes, and multiple Trump passports, the filing said, which they said were “outside the lawful reach of an already overboard warrant.”

“Law enforcement is a shield that protects Americans. It cannot be used as a weapon for political purposes,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the filing.

An aerial view of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. (Steve Helber/AP Photo)

The attorneys argued that the documents are “‘presumptively privileged’ until proven otherwise,” making it “unreasonable to allow the prosecutorial team to review them without meaningful safeguards.”

“Short of returning the seized items to Movant, only a neutral review by a Special Master can protect the ‘great public interest’ in preserving ‘the confidentiality of conversations that take place in the President’s performance of his official duties,’” the filing stated.

According to Trump’s lawyers,