‘Limited set of materials’ potentially covered by attorney-client privilege found in Mar-a-Lago search, Justice Department says

By Kara Scannell

The Justice Department has identified “a limited set of materials” from its search of documents taken from Mar-a-Lago that potentially contain material covered by attorney-client privilege and is in the process of addressing privilege disputes, it said in a court filing Monday.

Justice officials also confirmed that US intelligence officials are reviewing the documents for classified materials.

In a court filing last week, Trump, who is requesting a “special master” to oversee the review of evidence recovered from the search, pointed to some additional legal discussion of case law that he said supported his request. One of those cases had to do with his former attorney Rudy Giuliani. Nowhere in the filing did Trump suggest that material dealing with attorney-client privilege was seized in the FBI’s search of his resort.

US District Judge Aileen Cannon has put both parties on notice that she had a “preliminary intent” to appoint a special master, a third-party attorney who would filter out privileged material seized in the search.

She has scheduled a hearing for Thursday in Florida.

The FBI used law enforcement personnel who were not part of the investigation to search Trump’s office in order to protect against potential attorney-client privilege issues, according to a redacted version of the search warrant affidavit released Friday. The affidavit says that the FBI used a “Privilege Review Team” to search the “45 office,” separate from the investigators who searched other areas of Trump’s residence authorized by the warrant.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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CNN’s Devan Cole, Tierney Sneed, Marshall Cohen and Jeremy Herb contributed to this report.