DOJ, intelligence officials feel delaying Trump investigation harms national security

Washington, Sep 10 (IANS) Any further delay in delaying criminal investigations into former President Donald Trump and the records he kept at Mar-a-Lago Florida residence could put America's national security at risk, says the US Department of Justice.

The DOJ has made this claim in the wake of US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed federal judge, granting the former president's request for a special master to review evidence seized during the raid independently.

The DOJ claimed that pausing the FBI's criminal investigation while separately continuing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's damage assessment was essentially impossible, media reports said.

The DOJ said it would appeal the Trump Mar-a-Lago Special Master order.

The DOJ's motion was filed by Matthew Olsen, the assistant attorney general for the National Security Division, Jay Bratt, the chief of the DOJ's counterintelligence and export control section, and Juan Antonio Gonzalez, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

"The government seeks a stay to the extent the Order (1) enjoins the further review and use for criminal investigative purposes of records bearing classification markings that were recovered pursuant to a court-authorized search warrant and (2) requires the government to disclose those classified records to a special master for review," the DOJ officials wrote.

The DOJ revealed that during the Mar-a-Lago search, the FBI seized 33 boxes that contained roughly 100 "classified" documents.

"The Intelligence Community's review and assessment cannot be readily segregated from the Department of Justice's and Federal Bureau of Investigation's activities in connection with the ongoing criminal investigation, and uncertainty regarding the bounds of the Court's order and its implications for the activities of the FBI has caused the Intelligence Community, in consultation with DOJ, to pause temporarily this critically important work," the DOJ said.

"Moreover, the government and the public are irreparably injured when a criminal investigation of matters involving risks to national security is enjoined."

An ODNI spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that "in consultation with the Department of Justice, ODNI temporarily paused the classification review of relevant materials and assessment of the potential risk to national security that would result from the disclosure of the relevant documents." The Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence (ODNI) is to lead the IC in intelligence integration, forging a community that delivers the most insightful intelligence possible. ODNI's National Centers integrate and coordinate the activities of the entire IC, or in some cases, broader US government in the IC's major mission areas: counterterrorism, counterproliferation and counterintelligence.

Alan Kohler, the assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence division, also included a statement with the DOJ's filing.

Trump's winning Special Master (3rd independent person to review documents seized by FBI from Trump's Florida home) order from the Florida judge may be short lived, says the Washington Examiner in a report.

"The connection between the national security and criminal investigative aspects of this matter are grounded in the dual nature of the FBI," Kohler wrote.

"The IC assessments necessarily will inform the FBI's criminal investigation, including subsequent investigative steps that might be necessary.... The FBI is the only IC element with a full suite of authorities and tools to investigate and recover any improperly retained and stored classified information in the United States."

It comes after Cannon said Monday that she "temporarily enjoins the Government from reviewing and using the seized materials for investigative purposes pending completion of the special master's review or further Court order." But she said that her ruling "shall not impede the classification review and/or intelligence assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence."

Prosecutors argued late last month that the "appointment of a special master would impede the government's ongoing criminal investigation and -- if the special master were tasked with reviewing classified documents -- would impede the Intelligence Community from conducting its ongoing review of the national security risk that improper storage of these highly sensitive materials may have caused."

Trump's team countered: "The Government now has the temerity to argue that any involvement by a Special Master will 'interfere' with the now ongoing Intelligence Community review of the materials. Never has an argument against 'interference' better underscored the need for judicial involvement. "The judge ruled largely in Trump's favor.