Donald Trump
EKO HOT BLOG reports that a judge has granted Donald Trump’s demand for a “special master” to oversee the case into his handling of classified materials.
Trump is being investigated for allegedly taking documents with him when he left the White House.
But the “special master” is an independent lawyer who decides if any of the records are covered by attorney-client or executive privilege.
The move is seen as a blow to prosecutors and a win for Trump.
The former president had asked for the special master to be appointed, while prosecutors had strongly opposed it – and the appointment is likely to slow down the justice department’s ongoing criminal investigation.
That is because the judge has banned the government from reviewing or using the seized materials for its investigation until the special master’s independent review has been completed.
Department of Justice officials previously said that documents stored at former President Donald Trump’s Florida home were likely to have been concealed as part of an effort to obstruct an FBI investigation.
The authorities say these documents should have been handed over to the National Archives – which US presidents are legally obliged to do upon leaving office.
Trump, meanwhile, denies any kind of wrongdoing, arguing that as president he had declassified all the documents, and that they were kept securely at his Mar-a-Lago home.
The Department of Justice resisted Trump’s request saying that any presidential records seized in the FBI’s 8 August search of Mar-A-Lago “belong to the United States, not to the former president”.
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