But Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan noted that the DOJ, which is looking for evidence of criminal wrongdoing, is unilaterally reviewing the documents to decide what is or isn’t privileged.
“[The DOJ] has filed an extraordinary document with this Court, suggesting that the DOJ, and the DOJ alone, should be entrusted with the responsibility of evaluating its unjustified pursuit of criminalizing a former President’s possession of personal and Presidential records in a secure setting,” Halligan wrote.
“Now, the Government twists the framework of responding to a motion for a Special Master into an all-encompassing challenge to any judicial consideration, presently or in the future, of any aspect of its unprecedented behavior in this investigation.”
Trump’s lawyer said the DOJ’s response underscored the need for the court to appoint a special master. She also noted an apparent contradiction in the DOJ’s response that it had both already completed a review of the documents and continued to review the documents.
“Never has an argument against ‘interference’ better underscored the need for judicial involvement. All of this in the context of a unilateral filter team operation that to-date has never made any contact with counsel for [Trump], another historic first for DOJ,” Halligan wrote.
“Left unchecked, the DOJ will impugn, leak, and publicize selective aspects of their investigation with no recourse for [Trump] but to somehow trust the self-restraint of currently unchecked investigators.”
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon last week signaled in a court filing that she will likely sign off on appointing a special master to review documents that were taken from Mar-a-Lago.
