US Judge Aileen Cannon has ordered that an independent expert be appointed to review files seized at Donald Trump’s home in August by the FBI, according to a court document released Monday.
“An expert will be appointed to inspect the property sought, manage privilege claims, make recommendations and evaluate property return claims,” the judge said in his decision, which was seen as a victory for Trump in his legal dispute.
With this ruling, Judge Cannon complied with the former Republican president’s request by temporarily banning investigators from using documents seized from his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
However, investigators may continue to examine documents “for classification and security analysis purposes,” as ordered by the federal magistrate.
The judge gave both parties until Friday to submit a list of candidates for the post he ordered.
“The government is temporarily prohibited from examining and using in any way for criminal investigation purposes the materials seized at the plaintiff’s residence on 8 August 2022 until the conclusion of the expert review process determined by this Court.” order.
During a search of Trump’s personal office, top-secret government documents were found, including some marked “top secret,” according to the Justice Department.
A detailed listing of the seizures also showed that Trump held more than 11,000 declassified government records that he said belonged to him but legally belonged to the National Archives.
source: Noticias
