Trump granted independent expert to review FBI seized documents in 'victory' for former president

Donald Trump has been granted a “special master” to review documents seized from his home in a “victory” for the former president in his battle with the US Justice Department.

Judge Aileen Cannon, of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida, made the decision on Monday.

A special master, usually an esteemed lawyer or retired judge, is an independent expert appointed by a judge to ensure an investigation is being carried out properly.

It means that the federal investigation into Mr Trump taking classified documents when he left the White House will have to be paused and prosecutors will be denied access to them.

Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Mr Trump, said: “The court is mindful that restraints on criminal prosecutions are disfavoured, but finds that these unprecedented circumstances call for a brief pause to allow for neutral, third-party review to ensure a just process with adequate safeguards.”

The 24-page court order added that some of the 11,000 documents seized from Mr Trump’s Florida home “include medical documents, correspondence related to taxes and accounting information”, which he may be entitled to have returned.

And the FBI’s raid could cause him “irreparable injury”, Judge Cannon said, adding that “the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own”.

The Justice Department had argued that it had been using a separate “privilege review team” to look at any potentially-privileged documents and that any personal items are mixed in with relevant ones, which give them evidence status.

Victory for Trump – but not an overwhelming win

David Weinstein, a former Justice Department prosecutor who now works as a criminal defence lawyer in Florida, said: “While this is a victory for the former president, it is by no means an overwhelming win for him.”

He added: “While it is a setback for the government, it is also not a devastating loss for them.”

Investigators conducting the probe against Mr Trump are focusing not just on why the records were stored at the estate, but also on whether the Trump team intentionally misled them about the unlawful presence of government secrets.

Last week, the Justice Department revealed that the items taken in the FBI raid contained several blank documents with “classified “banners on them.

At a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Mr Trump suggested that he would run for president again in 2024.

“We are leading Biden and everyone else, including the Republicans, by record numbers in the polls. So I may just have to do it again. You’ll be… stay tuned. I have to do it again,” he told supporters at his first public event since the FBI raid on 8 August.

He described the raid as “shameful” and a “travesty of justice that made a mockery of America’s laws, traditions and principles”.

The former president called the FBI and Justice Department “vicious monsters controlled by radical left scoundrels, lawyers and the media who tell them what to do”.