Trump Team Accuses DOJ of Inciting ‘Chaos’ by Blocking Special Master

Former President Donald Trump (Left) at CPAC in Dallas, Texas, on Aug. 6, 2022, and the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 11, 2022. Brandon Bell, Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team accused the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday of blocking an attempt “towards restoring order from chaos” by arguing against the appointment of an independent arbiter.

“The very purpose of a special master is to serve as a neutral third party, with appropriate authorization, reviewing documents to facilitate resolution of the parties’ disagreements,” Trump lawyer Chris Kise wrote in a filing, asking the court to keep blocking DOJ access to records that were taken by FBI agents from his Mar-a-Lago last month.

“In opposing any neutral review of the seized materials, the Government seeks to block a reasonable first step towards restoring order from chaos and increasing public confidence in the integrity of the process,” the filing continued (pdf), adding, “A special master is not an agent for either President Trump or the Government.”

The Justice Department had asked the judge, Aileen Cannon, to lift a hold on the review and said it would contest the ruling to a federal appeals court. The department said its investigation risked being harmed beyond repair if that order remained in place, noting that confusion about its scope and meaning had already led the intelligence community to pause a separate risk assessment it was doing.

Proposed Candidates

In the meantime, both sides on Friday night each proposed different names of candidates who could serve in the role of a special master, though they disagreed on the exact scope of duties the person should have. Cannon has said the yet-to-be-named arbiter would be tasked with reviewing the documents and weeding out from the investigation any that could be covered by claims of either executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.

Cannon last week granted the Trump team’s request for the appointment of an independent arbiter, also known as a special master, to review the seized records and prohibited for now the department from examining the documents for investigative purposes.

In Monday’s filing, Kise agreed with the decision—describing it as “warranted”—so that all “seized materials may be appropriately reviewed and categorized.”

The Justice Department has said Trump, as former commander-in-chief, had no right to hold onto the presidential documents. And the criminal statutes that the department has used as the basis of its investigation, including one criminalizing the willful retention of national defense information, do not actually require that the records be classified.

The agency said that more than 100 documents that allegedly had classified markings were taken from Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8. A photograph that appeared to show the documents were included in a court filing last month, which was panned by Trump in a recent interview as a “set up.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the DOJ for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.