Obama Appointed As Trump’s Special Master?
Not long after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon approved Trump’s request to appoint a Special Master to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago raid case, rumors quickly spread across social media that former President Barack Obama was going to be appointed as Trump’s Special Master.
The Special Master is tasked with looking at all of the documents which Trump took from the White House to his home at Mar-a-Lago to see if what he took was truly highly classified documents. The Special Master is tasked with determining if the FBI and DOJ attempted to sabotage Trump by placing false accusations against him.
Now, rumors are spreading that none other than former President Barack Obama will be Trump’s Special Master because he is the only man in the United States that has high enough clearance to look at the documents.
According to Newsweek, both Trump’s legal team and the DOJ will have to submit a list of names of people who they want to be the Special Master.
Social Media went into a frenzy of candidates who could be appointed as Trump’s Special Master and many liberals insisted that the only man for the job was Barack Obama. Activist Andrea Junker wrote, “You know who already has the security clearance necessary to be Trump’s special master? Barack Obama.”
However these claims that Obama has clearance to these documents are purely FALSE. Newsweek explained that just because Obama is a former president does not mean that he has security clearance by default to look at these documents. It is unclear at the moment if Obama could be authorized to review all the documents some of which are identified as “top secret”.
Often times, Special Masters are often times judges or retired judges, they can also be experienced prosecutors or defense attorneys. It would be extremely unlikely and unprecedented for Obama to be appointed as Trump’s Special Master.
Furthermore, Rule 53 (C) (2) states: “A master must not have a relationship to the parties, attorneys, action, or court that would require disqualification of a judge under 28 U.S.C. §455, unless the parties, with the court’s approval, consent to the appointment after the master discloses any potential grounds for disqualification.”
Legally while it is possible for Obama to be appointed as the individual who serves as Trump’s Special Master, it would be extremely unlikely for this to happen.