OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
An attorney for former President Donald Trump said that she is disturbed by the leaks coming from the Department of Justice regarding the raid on Mar-a-Lago.
“This is incredibly disturbing to me in terns of leaks coming from the Justice Department,” Alina Habba said Wednesday on the Newsmax show “Wake Up America,” Newsmax reported.
She said that it is another example of the Department of Justice and FBI being politicized.
In the most recent leak, an unnamed source told The Washington Post that information on the nuclear capabilities of another nation were found in the documents at Mar-a-Lago.
The attorney said “when you have to defend yourself [as the DOJ is currently doing], stories come out. … And I think that’s exactly what they are, just stories.”
She said that the media’s telling of the story is “inconsistent, outrageous, and all over the map.”
She said that the Department of Justice will appeal the decision to appoint a special master, which it did, but that “what people need to remember is that this ruling is an injunction, so at this moment everything has stopped in terms of any investigation they might be having, which is a very big win for the Trump team.”
The Department of Justice has decided to appeal the decision of the judge who appointed a special master to oversee the documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s private residence.
It also asked that asked Judge Aileen Cannon pause her order that blocked the Department of Justice from continuing to review the documents, NBC News reported.
The moves came three days after Cannon approved Trump’s request for a special master to sift through the seized materials to identify personal items and records that are protected by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.
The DOJ had opposed that request, saying a team of agency officials had already completed a privilege review of the documents, and that a special master could harm the government’s national security interests.
In another court filing Thursday, the DOJ asked Cannon to make public a notice on the status of that team’s filter review process, which had been filed under seal on Aug. 30.
This week U.S. District Judge from the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen M. Cannon on Monday ordered that a special master be appointed to review records seized last month by the FBI during a raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
She ordered that an independent third-party be appointed to “review the seized property, manage assertions of privilege and make recommendations thereon, and evaluate claims for return of property.”
“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 order states.
“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,” it adds.
The order, though, “shall not impede the classification review and/or intelligence assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (“ODNI”) as described in the Government’s Notice of Receipt of Preliminary Order.”
At a hearing late last week, Cannon said she would issue a written ruling on Trump’s request “in due time.”
During the hearing, Trump lawyer Jim Trusty slammed the DOJ for allegedly trying to prosecute Trump at all costs, saying the FBI could have “taken an overdue library book” and it would have “suddenly turned into a criminal investigation.”
DOJ attorney Jay Bratt argued that Trump does not have the same legal privileges to classified documents as he did when he was in office.
“He is no longer the president, and because he is not … he was unlawfully in possession of them,” Bratt said, referring to the documents the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago.
Judge Cannon reportedly appeared skeptical of the DOJ’s arguments at times.
“What is the harm of appointing a special master,” the judge said during the hearing. “What is your articulation of harm other than the general concern that it would delay a criminal investigation?”
“She also floated the idea of letting the director of national intelligence review of the documents continue while halting the criminal investigation for a time and letting a special master review the materials. Trump’s team and the DOJ also disagreed during the hearing about the gravity of national security documents being stored at Mar-a-Lago,” Fox News reported.
