Washington 6th, September : A federal judge approved the former US President Donald Trump’s request to name the position of a “special master” to examine the documents Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents took from his Mar-a-Lago residence last month.US District Judge Aileen Cannon wrote in an order of the court that “authorises the appointment of an individual master to look over the seized property for personal items , documents and possibly confidential items that are that is subject to claims of executive privilege or attorney-client privilege”, Xinhua news agency reported.
In addition, Cannon blocked investigators from further reviewing or using documents they had seized in their investigations until the master has completed their review.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and Trump’s lawyers were also requested to provide a joint file by Friday , which includes a proposed master list of presidential candidates.
Trump has accused the FBI of conducting searches at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida to pursue political goals and claiming that certain of the documents are protected under attorney-client privilege as well as executive privilege.
The DOJ had claimed that a special master’s appointment would hinder its investigation into allegations of Trump’s improper handling of classified documents, and also that he was not able to claim the authority to assert executive privilege during his tenure in the White House since he is no more in the White House.
A preliminary review of the documents found at Mar-a-Lago on the 8th of August by the FBI was reported to have discovered the 184 documents that bear the designation “classification,” including 67 documents labeled as “CONFIDENTIAL,” 92 documents classified as “SECRET,” and 25 documents that were marked as “TOP SECRET,” according to a redacted Affidavit.
Trump is not denying any wrongdoing, and has claimed that all documents seized were classified.
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