David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – On Saturday, a U.S. judge said her “preliminary intent” was to approve former President Donald Trump Pu’s request to appoint a special director to oversee a review of material seized from his Florida home during an FBI raid on Aug. 8.
U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, nominated by Trump in 2020, also directed the Justice Department on Saturday Submit more details, “detailing all property seized pursuant to a search warrant.”
Trump also asked the Justice Department on August 22 to provide him with more detailed property receipts, which listed The FBI seized items from his Mar-a-Lago estate during an Aug. 8 search and asked investigators to return any items outside the scope of the search warrant.
Cannon asked the administration to submit its response to Trump’s request for a special host by Tuesday, with a hearing on Thursday. She has yet to make a final decision on Trump’s request, her order said.
A special host may sometimes be appointed in highly sensitive cases to review seized material and ensure investigators do not review privileged information.
The Justice Department disclosed Friday that it is investigating why Trump deleted White House records because it believes he illegally held documents, including some involving intelligence gathering and secret human resources — that America’s best-kept secret.
In an affidavit, an unidentified FBI agent said that after Trump returned 15 boxes of government records requested by the National Archives in January, the agency reviewed and Identified 184 “classified” documents containing “Defense Information”.
Federal investigation into whether Trump illegally removed and retained documents when he left office in January 2021 after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, and whether Trump Attempt to obstruct the investigation.
Trump, a Republican who is considering re-running for the presidency in 2024, described the court-sanctioned search at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach as politically motivated and again on Friday Called this as a “break-in”.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Nick Ziminsky)
