Trump’s FBI raid: Ex-NJ Gov. Whitman, other former prosecutors call special master request a ‘waste of time’

Ahead of a Justice Department filing opposing President Trump’s call for a “special master” to review White House documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, seven former prosecutors feds filed an amicus brief asking a federal judge in Florida to deny. your request

Former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, Donald B. Ayer, Gregory A. Brower, John J. Farmer Jr., Stuart M. Gerson, Peter D. Keisler, William F. Weld, who served in Republican administrations , called Trump’s request a “waste of time.”

The motion said the former prosecutors have a “special interest” in the case and “can assist the court.”

Christine Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey, speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018.
(Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“All of the friends served in Republican administrations and collectively have decades of experience prosecuting cases involving sensitive material or advising on issues related to the appropriate scope of executive power and executive privilege,” the motion said.

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The brief said Trump’s request should be denied because the appointment of a special master for an executive privilege claim by a former president “against the very executive branch to which the privilege belongs” is unprecedented.

This image contained in an Aug. 30, 2022 Justice Department court filing, and redacted in part by the FBI, shows a photo of documents seized during the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of former president Donald Trump. A-Lago estate in Florida.
(Department of Justice via AP)

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He added that his request ignores the Presidential Records Act’s requirement that a challenge by a former president to executive privilege “must be filed in the jurisdiction available under the PRA, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.” He said he is seeking relief to which he is not entitled by making the request in a Florida court “which is statutorily barred from hearing the matter.”

Former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was raided by the FBI earlier this month.
(Fox News)

Finally, he called Trump’s request “a waste of time because the claim of executive privilege against the executive branch in this case is patently frivolous.”

The DOJ also filed its response to Trump’s request on Friday, opposing it on the grounds that it is “unnecessary” and would “harm national security interests.”

The department said in its filing that the classified documents were likely “hidden” at Mar-a-Lago in violation of a grand jury subpoena.

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Whitman was the Republican governor of New Jersey from 1994 to 2001 and served in the George W. Bush administration.