Sometimes, it starts to feel like we are finally getting somewhere. It starts to feel like this country is actually, finally, taking things seriously and Donald J. Trump will finally be held accountable for at least some of his crimes. The recent FBI search and seizure warrant raid against his Mar-a-Lago compound and the Justice Department’s full steam ahead attitude here lately had given us that shred of hope that we were all so desperate for, after watching this man get away with just about everything short of murder for so many years now.
But it seems to never fail, we will get one step ahead only to take two more back when something like this happens.
Donald Trump was quick to quite literally sue the United States government in response to the raid against his Palm Beach estate that he now calls home in his post-White House days. Included in that lawsuit, was his demand that a federal judge appoint a so-called special master (watchdog) to review the documents that were seized by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump’s demands for a special watchdog on the case are part of a larger effort, via the lawsuit, to prevent the Biden Department of Justice from further reviewing any of the material that was taken by Trump from the White House and later seized during the raid.
The ex-president specifically stated that a federal judge should block the DOJ from “further review of seized materials,” hailing from the raid that he suggests was politically motivated in his lawsuit, until such a point when his requested special master has been appointed.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
Frankly, we all thought this was a pipe dream, at best, that no federal judge in their right mind would even consider playing along with.
Apparently, we all thought wrong.
According to breaking new reporting out from CNBC, federal judge Aileen Cannon has now officially authorized the appointment of a special master to review the records, documents, and materials that were seized from Donald Trump’s country club. To make matters that much worse, Cannon also temporarily blocked the Department of Justice from reviewing the seized materials or using any of the documents for the purpose of their investigation. This ruling will remain in effect until such a time that the special master has completed their review of the materials, or a further court order has been put into place.
In her order in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Cannon wrote that the independent third party, or so-call “special master,” will examine “the seized property for personal items and documents and potentially privileged material subject to claims of attorney-client and/or executive privilege.”
Judge Cannon was appointed to her position by Donald J. Trump.
Cannon went on to write, as was argued by the ex-president’s legal team in court last week, “the investigation and treatment of a former president is of unique interest to the general public, and the country is served best by an orderly process that promotes the interest and perception of fairness.”
The judge went on to order that the DOJ and Trump’s attorneys confer together to submit a joint list of possible special masters candidates by Friday, and order them to produce an outline of what the special master’s specific duties, responsibilities, and limitations should be, as well as their compensation.
This ruling comes on the heels of the recent bombshell 36-page court filing released by the DOJ, complete with damning photos, confirming that multiple highly-classified government documents, including many with clear “Top Secret” markings, were discovered in Donald Trump’s personal Mar-a-Lago office during the FBI’s execution of the search and seizure warrant raid at his estate.
A detailed list of seized items released by the DOJ included more than 11,000 unclassified government records found at Mar-a-Lago, all of which Trump claims he had the right to keep upon the end of his presidency, that actually belong to the National Archives and Records Administration.
Eighteen marked “Top Secret,” 53 labeled “Secret,” and 31 marked “Confidential” were found inside Donald Trump’s Palm Beach compound. Among those, 7 top secret, 17 secret, and 3 confidential files were discovered in Donald’s personal office.
An additional several dozen folders clearly labeled “classified” were discovered empty in the ex-president’s personal office, raising serious suspicion that the former president or his people lost, destroyed, or hid sensitive documents from government officials.
It certainly feels as though Donald Trump is getting away with it all over again.
Read the full report on the breaking news from CNBC here.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
