Justice Department Bulldozes Court on Trump Privilege Claims

The Trump legal team’s inexplicable delay in seeking court intervention, in the form of a so-called special master, has had the predictable consequence: Even before the court could rule on the belated request, the Justice Department completed its review of the documents and made unilateral determinations about what was potentially privileged.

The DOJ’s “privilege-review team” has presumably disseminated what it determined to be the non-privileged documents (the vast majority of what was seized) to the “case team” (i.e., the prosecutors and agents working on the investigation). As a result, even though the Trump team’s application for court intervention had merit, the Justice Department has laid the groundwork to argue that the point is moot. In fact, case prosecutors seem poised to blast the former president and his legal team, having obtained leave to file a lengthy submission on Tuesday rebutting their factual and legal claims.

If I were the judge on the case, I’d be furious.