WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has completed its review of potentially privileged documents seized from former President Donald Trump's Palm Beach estate this month and has identified "a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information," according to a court filing Monday.
The filing from the department follows a judge's weekend order indicating that she was inclined to grant the Trump legal team's request for a special master who would oversee the review of documents taken during the Aug. 8 search of the Mar-a-Lago estate and ensure that any that might be protected by claims of legal privilege be set aside.
In revealing that the department had completed its review of potentially privileged communications, law enforcement officials appeared to be suggesting that the appointment of a third-party special master might now be moot.
The department had been relying on a specialized team to filter out potentially privileged communications and said Monday that it had completed its review of those materials before the judge's order.
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U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said on Saturday that it was her "preliminary intent" to appoint a special master — which would be an early procedural win for the Trump legal team — but gave the department an opportunity to respond and scheduled a Thursday hearing to discuss the matter further.
The judge also directed the Justice Department to submit under seal a more detailed description of the materials that were seized from Trump's estate in Palm Beach, something the department on Monday said it would do.
Attorney Valentin Rodriguez said special masters are usually legal experts who are used in civil cases.
The former president's attorneys want the special master to filter out items they say are not connected to the search warrant and the FBI should not have taken.
"I think it's a very elaborate fishing expedition where they’re trying to take the process out of the criminal justice system and send it to a special master where they have more control," Rodriquez.
Former assistant U.S. Attorney David Weinstein said the justice department -- according to the affidavit released last week -- was already filtering documents.
"We can see from the document that DOJ recognized that issue from the beginning," Weinstein said. "As to the attorney-client privilege communication, they recognized it and set up a process and procedure whereby they walled off the law enforcement team from people who were searching for these documents."
Weinstein also adds that it's possible that some of the documents taken may already have been submitted as evidence.
"The fact they are collecting records and the fact there are additional parts of this document that are redacted seems to indicate they have already gone to a grand jury," Weinstein said.
The Department of Justice filed paperwork Monday afternoon stating they have finished the document filtering and separated anything related to attorney-client privilege.
