The U.S. Department of Justice said it already screened documents seized from Donald Trump’s Florida home for attorney-client privilege, potentially casting doubt on the former president’s lawsuit seeking third-party review of the records.
Trump claims a so-called special master is necessary to determine if some of the documents were privileged, and a federal judge suggested over the weekend that she was inclined to grant the request. But in a Monday court filing that was its first reaction to the suit, the Justice Department suggested that it had already addressed those concerns.
A privilege review team identified a “limited set” of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information and has now completed its review of those materials, the government said in its filing in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Justice Department said it would file a more substantive response on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has set a Sept. 1 hearing on the matter.
