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'Bungling missteps' by Trump in Mar-a-Lago case were revealed by special master: expert
October 18, 2022 4:29PM ET
Donald Trump / Official White House photo by Tia Dufour
Donald Trump and his attorneys have continued to make legal missteps in the months since the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, a legal expert explained on Tuesday.
The analysis from former Pentagon special counsel Ryan Goodman came after Special Master Raymond Dearie asked "where's the beef?" about Trump's claims during a status call.
"The special master reviewing materials seized by the F.B.I. from former President Donald J. Trump’s compound in Florida expressed skepticism on Tuesday about early claims by Mr. Trump’s lawyers that certain documents were privileged and thus could be withheld from a Justice Department investigation," The New York Timesreported. "In a phone conference, the special master, Judge Raymond J. Dearie of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, complained that the log of an initial batch of documents over which Mr. Trump is seeking to claim privilege lacked sufficient information to determine whether the arguments were valid."
Goodman said it "looks like bungling missteps by Trump counsel" in the Mar-a-Lago case.
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"They apparently asserted the same document is subject to executive privilege (meaning it must be a gov doc) and is personal (meaning it must not be a govt doc)," Goodman wrote in a thread posted to Twitter that linked to The Times' story.
He quoted Dearie as saying, “unless I’m wrong, and I’ve been wrong before, there’s certainly an incongruity there.”
"Next up: Trump's counsel apparently asserted attorney-client privilege over other records even though a third party was involved," he noted. "A third-party's involvement would likely defeat the attorney-client privilege."
He quoted Dearie as saying, “where third parties are involved in the document, I need some understanding why the presence of the third party doesn’t defeat the privilege.”
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