Trump re-ups request for ‘special master’ but glosses over some questions from the judge
By Tierney Sneed, CNN
Former President Donald Trump responded Friday to a judge’s request that he elaborate on his request that the court appoint a “special master” to oversee the review of evidence recovered from the search of his Mar-a-Lago residence with a 12-page filing that touched briefly on the newly released affidavit the FBI used to obtain the warrant.
Trump was ordered to submit the filing after US District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Florida judge assigned to his case seeking a special master, identified several shortcomings in his initial Monday request for more oversight for the FBI’s review of the evidence seized.
In the new Friday night filing, Trump pointed to some additional legal discussion of case law that he saidsupported his request. One of those cases had to do with his former attorney Rudy Giuliani. Nowhere in the filing did Trump suggest that material dealing with attorney-client privilege was seized in the FBI’s search of his resort.
The new response appeared to fall short the of the elaboration Cannon was seeking. Trump did not elaborate on what exactly he hoped a special master — a third-party attorney — would filter out, besides general allusions to “privileged and potentially privileged materials.”
He also did not include with the filing a motion for immediate action from the judge — like a request for a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction — despite the judge’s request that he put before her “the precise relief sought, including any request for injunctive relief pending resolution of the Motion.”
Trump claimed that the newly released redacted affidavit the FBI submitted in court to obtain the warrant for the search raised “more questions than answers.”
“The Redacted Affidavit underscores why this Motion should be granted, as it provides almost no information that would allow Movant to understand why the raid took place, or what was taken from his home,” Trump’s wrote on the filing.
The-CNN-Wire
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