The special master reviewing the records suggested on Tuesday that Donald Trump’s assertions of executive and attorney-client privilege over certain documents that the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago resort lack evidence sufficient for him to rule in the former president’s favor.
“It’s a little perplexing as I go through the log,” Senior US district court judge Raymond Dearie said during a conference call in the case on Tuesday. “What’s the expression – ‘Where’s the beef?’ I need some beef.”
Dearie added that the log of documents Trump is trying to withhold from the justice department did not give enough information about the validity of the privilege claims nd encouraged Trump’s lawyers to elaborate on why they believed the documents could be excluded from the justice department’s criminal investigation into the potential willful retention of national defense information, removal of government records and obstruction of justice.
The discussion on the conference call, first reported by The Guardian, was the latest development in the ongoing review that is examining whether any of the 11,000 documents without classified markings seized from Mar-a-Lago are legally privileged and cannot be used by prosecutors in the criminal investigation.
Following the raid at his residence, Trump sought the appointment of a special master and argued to US district court judge Aileen Cannon in Florida – a Trump appointee – that the justice department should not itself decide whether some of the documents were potentially protected by executive or attorney-client privilege.
Judge Cannon granted Trump’s request in an unprecedented and controversial ruling that also prevented federal investigators from examining both the 11,000 documents and an additional 103 documents bearing classified markings.
As noted by The Guardian, “that prompted the justice department to seek to reverse elements of Cannon’s ruling in order to regain access to the 103 documents, which the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit granted and the US supreme court last week upheld over Trump’s objections.”
