唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)获胜，美国地区法官艾琳·坎农(Aileen Cannon)批准了前总统法律团队的请求，任命一名特别检察官审查文件在联邦调查局的搜查中缴获的他的Mar-a-Lago房产。
这项裁决将停止司法部在刑事调查中对所有文件的审查。
联邦法官周一在她的命令中说:“法院特此授权任命一名特别检察官，以审查被扣押的个人物品和文件以及可能享有特权的材料，但须符合律师-客户和/或行政特权的要求。”“此外，与这一任命自然相关，并符合特别主程序的价值和顺序，法院还暂时禁止政府在特别主审查完成或法院进一步命令之前，为调查目的审查和使用被扣押的材料。”
坎农法官说，任命一个独立的第三方不会妨碍情报界正在进行的分类审查和国家安全评估。
坎农说:“政府可能会继续审查和使用这些材料，用于情报分类和国家安全评估。”。
坎农写道，最高法院“意识到，在特殊情况下，至少需要确保公平和正直的外表。”
她引用了她所谓的“政党之间的权力不平衡;保持机构信任的重要性;以及在偏见和媒体泄密的纷扰指控中确保有序过程的完整性的利益。”
关于律师-委托人特权问题，她说，“政府的论点假设特权审查小组对潜在特权材料的初步筛选是充分的，但有证据表明这个前提值得怀疑。”
她继续说，“在没有深入细节的情况下，特权审查小组的报告提到了至少两个例子，调查小组的成员接触到了一些材料，这些材料随后被提交给特权审查小组，并在另一次审查后被指定为潜在的特权材料。”
她补充说，“仅仅这些例子，即使完全是无意的，也会产生关于过滤器审查过程是否充分的问题。”
法官要求DOJ和川普的团队在周五之前进行协商，并提交一份拟议特别硕士候选人的联合名单，以及一份概述特别硕士职责和限制的拟议命令。目前，坎农法官表示，她保留对特朗普是否应该将被没收的财产归还给他的裁决。
“美国正在审查这一意见，并将考虑正在进行的诉讼中的适当的下一步措施。”司法部发言人Anthony Coley在周一下午的一份声明中说，但没有关于DOJ是否会寻求对法官的命令提出上诉的消息。
各种法律专家在法官做出裁决后表示，坎农的法律分析对前总统特朗普的法律团队提出的论点给予了广泛的尊重，似乎为总统在任期间以外的行政特权创造了一个新的先例，很难看到司法部允许这种特权存在。
坎农由特朗普提名，并在输给乔·拜登(Joe Biden)一周后得到美国参议院的确认，他引用了“对前总统官邸的搜查无可否认是史无前例的”，以及他“对前任和现任政府在文件所有权和交换方面的惯常合作的依赖”，为自己的裁决辩护，同时完全拒绝承认特朗普法律团队在与DOJ的谈判中可能阻挠的严重指控。
她还对联邦调查局扣押被描述为“独一无二”的材料“相关的耻辱”表示担忧，并特别指出，“(对特朗普的)未来起诉，无论在何种程度上基于应该归还的财产，都将导致明显不同数量级的名誉损害。”
坎农进一步指出，特别大师的干预将有助于确保“在关于偏见和媒体泄露的纷扰指控中有序进程的完整性”，他建议DOJ的调查人员可以寻求泄露在Mar-a-Lago获得的证据中的致命细节，以损害川普的声誉。
Judge grants Donald Trump's request for special master, halts government review of seized Mar-a-Lago documents
In a win for Donald Trump, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has granted a request from the former president's legal team to appoint a special master to review documentsseized in the FBI searchof his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The ruling will halt all reviews of the documents by the Justice Department in its criminal investigation.
"The Court hereby authorizes the appointment of a special master to review the seized property for personal items and documents and potentially privileged material subject to claims of attorney-client and/or executive privilege," the federal judge said in her order Monday. "Furthermore, in natural conjunction with that appointment, and consistent with the value and sequence of special master procedures, the Court also temporarily enjoins the Government from reviewing and using the seized materials for investigative purposes pending completion of the special master's review or further Court order."
An aerial view shows President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estatein Palm Beach, Fla., Aug. 10, 2022.
Steve Helber/AP
Judge Cannon said that the appointment of an independent third party would not impede the ongoing classification review and national security assessments being conducted by the intelligence community.
"The Government may continue to review and use the materials seized for purposes of intelligence classification and national security assessments," Cannon said.
The court, Cannon wrote, is "mindful of the need to ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity under the extraordinary circumstances presented."
She cited what she called "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."
With regard to attorney-client privilege matters, she said, "the Government’s argument assumes that the Privilege Review Team’s initial screening for potentially privileged material was sufficient, yet there is evidence from which to call that premise into question here."
She continued, "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."
She added, "Those instances alone, even if entirely inadvertent, yield questions about the adequacy of the filter review process."
The judge gave DOJ and Trump's team until Friday to confer and submit a joint list of proposed special master candidates and a proposed order outlining the special master's duties and limitations. For now, Judge Cannon said she is reserving a ruling on whether Trump should have property returned to him that was seized.
"The United States is examining the opinion and will consider appropriate next steps in the ongoing litigation." Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said in a statement Monday afternoon but there was no word on whether DOJ will seek to appeal the judge's order.
Cannon's legal analysis gives extensive deference to the arguments put forward by former President Trump's legal team, and appears to create a new precedent for executive privilege stretching beyond a president's time in office that it is difficult to see the Justice Department allowing to stand, various legal experts argued in the wake of the judge's ruling.
Cannon, who was nominated by Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate a week after his election loss to Joe Biden, justified her ruling by citing the "undeniably unprecedented nature of the search of a former President’s residence," and his "stated reliance on the customary cooperation between former and incumbent administrations regarding the ownership and exchange of documents," while declining altogether to acknowledge the serious allegations of potential obstruction by Trump's legal team in their negotiations with DOJ.
She also expressed concern over "the stigma associated with" the FBI's seizure of the materials described as "in a league of its own" and specifically notes "a future indictment [of Trump], based to any degree on property that ought to be returned, would result in reputational harm of a decidedly different order of magnitude."
And Cannon further argued that a special master's intervention would help ensure "the integrity of an orderly process amidst swirling allegations of bias and media leaks," by suggesting DOJ's investigators could seek to leak out damning details from the evidence seized at Mar-a-Lago to harm Trump's reputation.
