On Monday, a federal judge approved the lawyers for former President Donald Trump’s request to appoint a special master to review records the FBI seized from his Florida home during a search last month.

Judge Aileen Cannon temporarily prohibited the Department of Justice from analysing or using the confiscated information for investigation purposes up until the conclusion of the special master’s analysis of the data or up until the issuance of a fresh court order.

According to Cannon’s order in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the confiscated property would be searched by this impartial third party for “personal goods and papers and possibly protected material subject to claims of attorney-client and/or executive privilege.”

According to Cannon, her instruction will not obstruct the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s ongoing investigation into any potential threats to American intelligence or its ongoing review of the classified documents discovered at Trump’s residence.

When Trump left office in January 2021, the DOJ launched a criminal investigation into the movement of official papers from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. These records were to be lawfully turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration at the conclusion of Trump’s presidency.

The Aug. 8 raid at Mar-a-Lago represented the first time ever that law enforcement officers searched a former president’s house as part of an investigation, the judge, who was appointed by Trump, recognised in her ruling.

Cannon echoed what Trump’s attorneys argued at a court hearing last week, saying that the investigation into and treatment of a former president are of great interest to the general public, and the nation is best served by an orderly process that nurtures the interest and perception of fairness.

Cannon gave orders to the DOJ and Trump’s legal team to confer prior to providing a list of potential special master candidates by Friday. The watchdog’s salary as well as the special master’s duties and limitations had to be specified, she further directed them.

Trump requested the appointment of a special master few weeks after the raid, during which FBI investigators uncovered more than 10,000 official documents, more than 100 of which were classified or extremely sensitive.

Additionally, 40 of the 43 or so empty document folders marked “classified” that were found during the investigation were in Trump’s office. The remaining five empty folders with that marking were found in containers in a storage location.

The FBI found 42 additional empty folders marked “Return to Staff Secretary/Miliary Aide” throughout the investigation.

The appointment of the watchdog had been opposed by the Department of Justice, which said that Trump had no legal right to the records and that a review by a special master would impede its current criminal investigation.

The special master’s evaluation, according to Cannon, “in the present circumstances would not entail excessive delay,” she wrote in her ruling.

The DOJ and a Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Cannon’s directive.