And there it is. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice finally admitted in a Monday court filing that FBI agents seized “potentially contain[ing] attorney-client privileged information” in the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. “Potentially client privileged”? Please.
Half-admissions are nothing more than the first step in incremental truth-telling.
As reported by Daily Wire, the Justice Department’s admission came as U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon indicated she intended to appoint a special master to oversee the FBI’s review of materials seized in an August 8 unprecedented raid. Trump’s legal team requested the special master last week, claiming that the former president needed a safeguard against the DOJ obtaining privileged information.
The DOJ said in the filing:
Although the government will provide the Court more detail in its forthcoming supplemental filing, the government notes that, before the Court issued its Preliminary Order, and in accordance with the judicially authorized search warrant’s provisions, the [FBI] Privilege Review Team … identified a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information, completed its review of those materials, and is in the process of following the procedures set forth in paragraph 84 of the search warrant affidavit to address potential privilege disputes, if any.
On Saturday, Cannon issued an order giving the Justice Department until Tuesday to produce a more detailed list of items seized at Mar-a-Lago, as well as the proceedings of the Department of Justice’s “filter team” that is going through all of Trump’s documents. The DOJ also said on Monday it will comply with Cannon’s request and file the documents under seal by Tuesday.
I’ll go out on a safe limb and guess that the lawsuit filed by Trump in the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida on August 2022, in which he claimed his Fourth Amendment rights had been violated by the seizure of certain documents, including two of his passports, “helped” Merrick Garland & Co. decide to fess up a bit, while the fessing up might be better now than continuing to obfuscate and deflect.
In the lawsuit, Trump’s lawyers said the Mar-a-Lago raid appeared to be motivated more by politics than the rule of law. “[T]he Government has failed to legitimize its historic decision,” the suit claims while adding that Merrick Garland took the “unheard-of step” of holding a press conference over the raid and agreeing to release part of the search warrant application.
Merrick Garland did that? A man of his depth of character, integrity, and respect for the rule of law?
Why I never.
Anyway, this thing could get very interesting, very soon.
As we reported on Thursday, Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered that a redacted version of the affidavit that led to the execution of a search warrant on Mar-A-Lago be released (last) Friday morning. When the heavily-redacted affidavit was released as ordered, the FBI was absolutely crushed on social media, which included charges of “grave travesty” and “no reason for [the] raid.”
Yep, the noose continues to tighten on Merrick Garland and the boys.
Twisting in the wind is very pleasant, this time of year, don’t you think?