Judge Aileen Cannon released a ruling responding to former President Donald Trump’s bid for a special master to review evidence the FBI seized at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month.
Here are some key quotes from the decision, which was written by Cannon:
Page 9: No sign of “callous disregard” for Trump’s constitutional rights
“With respect to the first factor, the Court agrees with the Government that, at least based on the record to date, there has not been a compelling showing of callous disregard for Plaintiff’s constitutional rights. This factor cuts against the exercise of equitable jurisdiction.”
Page 9: Seized property includes documents about taxes
“The second factor—whether the movant has an individual interest in and need for the seized property—weighs in favor of entertaining Plaintiff’s requests… According to the Privilege Review Team’s Report, the seized materials include medical documents, correspondence related to taxes, and accounting information.”
Page 10: Anti-Trump stigma from Mar-a-Lago search “in a league of its own”
“As a function of Plaintiff’s former position as President of the United States, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own. A future indictment, based to any degree on property that ought to be returned, would result in reputational harm of a decidedly different order of magnitude.”
Page 11: Mar-a-Lago search was “undeniably unprecedented”
“Hence, the Court takes into account the undeniably unprecedented nature of the search of a former President’s residence; Plaintiff’s inability to examine the seized materials in formulating his arguments to date; Plaintiff’s stated reliance on the customary cooperation between former and incumbent administrations regarding the ownership and exchange of documents; the power imbalance between the parties; the importance of maintaining institutional trust; and the interest in ensuring the integrity of an orderly process amidst swirling allegations of bias and media leaks.”
Page 12: Special master needed to “safeguards” on the probe
“For now, the circumstances surrounding the seizure in this case and the associated need for adequate procedural safeguards are sufficiently compelling to at least get Plaintiff past the courthouse doors.”
Page 15: Two instances of DOJ investigators seeing privileged docs
“As reflected in the Privilege Review Team’s Report, the Investigative Team already has been exposed to potentially privileged material. Without delving into specifics, the Privilege Review Team’s Report references at least two instances in which members of the Investigative Team were exposed to material that was then delivered to the Privilege Review Team and, following another review, designated as potentially privileged material [ECF No. 40 p. 6]. Those instances alone, even if entirely inadvertent, yield questions about the adequacy of the filter review process.”
Page 23: “Brief pause” is needed in this investigation
“The Court is mindful that restraints on criminal prosecutions are disfavored but finds that these unprecedented circumstances call for a brief pause to allow for neutral, third-party review to ensure a just process with adequate safeguards.”
You can read the judge’s full ruling here.
Source: www.cnn.com