A federal judge said she would likely grant Donald Trump’s request for a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from the former US president’s home and seek out any privileged material.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, issued a preliminary order on Saturday and scheduled a hearing on the matter for Thursday, September 1 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
She said the preliminary order was warranted by “the exceptional circumstances presented”.
“The court hereby provides notice of its preliminary intent to appoint a special master in this case,” Judge Cannon said. The two-page order “should not be construed as a final determination,” she added.
The preliminary ruling comes less than 24 hours after a federal magistrate judge in the same court unsealed a redacted version of the FBI affidavit used to secure the search warrant for Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Federal agents investigating missing White House records left with 20 boxes of documents, including 11 sets of classified material.
Judge Cannon ordered the government to file a public response to Mr Trump’s request by August 30.
She also directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to file under seal a more detailed list of property seized from Mr Trump’s home and explain the status of the government’s own review of the material.
The sealed document must describe “any filter review conducted by the privilege review team and any dissemination of materials beyond the privilege review team,” she said.
Mr Trump’s lawyer and the DOJ were both directed to include in their filings “their respective and particularised positions on the duties and responsibilities of a prospective special master,” according to the order.
The DOJ did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Alina Habba, one of Trump’s lawyers, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr Trump’s lawsuit, filed against the US government on August 22, is seeking to halt the FBI review of the documents until a neutral third party could review them.
He has denied wrongdoing and offered a variety of explanations for the presence of classified documents at his home. For example, he said he had a “standing order” to declassify records he took and that FBI agents may have planted evidence during the search.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
