Noah Feldman, Columnist

Do ‘Trump Judges’ Exist? We’re About to Find Out

It’s one thing to appoint a special master. It’s another to hint that the law on executive privilege could be changed to protect the former president.

September 6, 2022 at 5:45 PM UTC

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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Photographer: James Devaney/GC Images/Getty Images

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Start circling the wagons. That’s the message a federal district judge is sending to other Trump-appointed judges by allowing a special master to review the documents seized from a Mar-A-Lago safe. By suggesting that former president Donald Trump might be able to invoke executive privilege after leaving office, Judge Aileen Cannon contravened well-settled precedent. It’s the first step in a process whereby Trump’s judicial appointees could delay the Justice Department investigation that places the former president in serious legal jeopardy.

On the surface, the judge’s order to appoint a special master doesn’t sound all that extreme. It’s not unheard of for a judge to appoint a special master to review materials seized under a search warrant to determine if some are subject to attorney-client privilege. With respect to attorney-client privilege, having the judicial branch review a potential defendant’s rights is a good thing, not a bad one.