In doing so, the court warned the parties that it had a “preliminary intention” to appoint the special master, an outside attorney who would sift through privileged material seized in the search.
Before the hearing, the government faces a Tuesday deadline to respond in writing to Trump’s request, according to the court’s scheduling order.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2020, is asking the Justice Department to file a public response and also file under sealed records more details about what was seized of the search, as well as a notice setting out the status of the review of the seized materials, including the insider information leak process.
Trump’s response to the DOJ’s response is due Wednesday.
The hearing will be at 1:00 PM ET Thursday at the West Palm Beach Courthouse.
Cannon said at the end of the order that it should not be interpreted as his final decision on the matter.
On Friday, Trump responded to Cannon’s request to expand his request for the special master by pointing to some additional legal discussion from case law that he said supported his request.
Cannon had identified several deficiencies in his Monday filing to call for more oversight.
Trump’s filing on Friday came hours after the Justice Department unsealed a redacted version of the affidavit he used to obtain the warrant, which presented new details about the FBI’s investigation and the highly sensitive nature of the classified material that had previously been recovered from Palm Beach. Florida resort
Trump claimed the newly released redacted affidavit the FBI filed in court to obtain the search warrant raised “more questions than answers.”
“The redacted affidavit underscores why this motion must be granted, as it provides almost no information that would allow movant to understand why the raid was conducted or what was taken from his home,” Trump wrote in the file
This story has been updated with additional information.