Former Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that a Florida judge’s decision to grant former President Donald Trump’s request for a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago is “deeply flawed” and call the Department of Justice to drop it.
“The opinion, I think, was wrong and I think the government should appeal to it. They are deeply flawed in a number of ways,” Barr said during an interview with Fox on Tuesday.
“I don’t think the appointment of a special master will last – but even if it does, I don’t see it materially changing the trajectory. In other words, I don’t think it changes the ballgame that much as we might have a rain delay for a couple of innings.”
U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, on Monday ordered a third-party attorney be brought in to review materials taken from Trump’s Florida home and resort. The order also prevents the Justice Department from continuing its review of materials seized from Mar-a-Lago “pending the completion of the master’s special review or further court order.”
However, classification review and intelligence assessments conducted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will be allowed to continue.
The Justice Department strongly opposed a special master and said its own “filter team” has already completed its review of the Mar-a-Lago documents. A Justice Department spokesman said Monday that officials are “reviewing the opinion” and considering “appropriate next steps.”
Cannon’s ruling was a major victory for the former President, who has been at odds with the Biden administration and Justice Department following the search of his Palm Beach property. Trump’s lawyers had argued that a special master was needed because they don’t trust the Justice Department to fairly identify privileged materials that should be excluded from the ongoing criminal investigation.
Although Barr has been a Trump loyalist during his tenure as attorney general, he has occasionally criticized the former president since leaving the administration and did not hold back in recent days when asked about Trump’s particular effort.
Barr, in a separate appearance on Fox last week, called the special primary request a “red herring” and a “waste of time.” He repeated those comments in a phone interview with The New York Times, saying he didn’t think an expert was “called for.”
Weighing in on the prospect of a DOJ appeal, he told Fox: “I think if the DOJ appeals, it will ultimately be overturned. I hope they speed it up, but it may take several months to fix it.”
