Posted on 09/29/22
| News Source: The Hill
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon brushed aside an order from the special master in the Mar-a-Lago case requiring former President Trump to back his claims the FBI planted evidence in his home in an order that also extends the deadline for completing the review.
The order from Cannon comes after Trump’s legal team penned a letter to Judge Raymond Dearie, the special master, complaining his “management plan exceeds the grant of authority from the district court on this issue.”
In Thursday’s order, Cannon agreed with Trump’s team, saying his attorneys would not be required to affirm the accuracy of the FBI’s inventory from Mar-a-Lago before getting a chance to review the records themselves.
“There shall be no separate requirement on Plaintiff at this stage, prior to the review of any of the seized materials. … The Court’s Appointment Order did not contemplate that obligation,” Cannon wrote.
Her order also extends the timeline to review the roughly 200,000 pages Trump stored at his home from Nov. 30 until Dec. 16.
The shuffling of deadlines also allows other key filings from the Trump team to land after the midterms.
Cannon sided with a requirement from Dearie for the Trump team to be more specific about what types of executive privilege he wishes to assert over the documents.