美国国家公共电台 NPR--A judge grants Trump's special master request to review Mar-a-Lago materials

A judge grants Trump¹'s special master request to review Mar-a-Lago materials

Transcript²

A federal judge ruled in favor of former President Trump on Monday, ordering an independent review of materials seized by the FBI at Trump's Florida home. It's a temporary setback³ for investigators⁴.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The Justice Department's investigation⁵ into former President Donald Trump's possession of classified materials has hit a temporary roadblock.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

A federal judge on Monday ruled in favor of Trump's request to have an independent third party, called a special master, review the materials the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate. Prosecutors⁶ now have to stop using that material in their investigation until the special master's work is done.

MARTIN: We've got NPR national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson with us this morning. Hey, Carrie.

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE⁷: Hey, Rachel.

MARTIN: What reasons did the judge give for this decision?

JOHNSON: The judge, who was appointed by former President Trump, talked about the need to ensure the appearance of fairness and integrity in the extraordinary circumstances presented by this FBI search of Trump's home. She says Trump has an interest in these seized materials - something like 11,000 pages of documents, some personal items and a few records related to his health and his taxes - and she wants the special master to review these papers for possible attorney-client privilege and executive privilege issues. The judge says it's not clear that Trump will ultimately win on those arguments or get any documents back but that there's an enormous public interest in this case, and she wants an orderly process.

MARTIN: An orderly process, though, Carrie, makes it sound like regular process. But this isn't regular, right? Her decision is exceptional. Is it legally sound?

JOHNSON: Well, this decision to put a pause on part of an active criminal investigation is a very unusual one, to put it mildly. I spoke⁸ with former Justice Department officials from Democratic and Republican administrations. They mention this judge's language, where she talked about stigma⁹ and reputational damage to Trump and the idea an investigation of a former president is of intense interest to the public, so there's a need to ensure the fairness of the process. But by going out of her way to accept Trump's arguments on executive privilege, which the National Archives have rejected as not a close call, and some other language - this decision is giving many legal experts the idea that the former president is getting treated a lot more favorably than other people investigated for crime.

MARTIN: And now this effectively delays DOJ's criminal investigation into the handling of these top-secret documents.

JOHNSON: It does. The government is conducting this ongoing¹⁰ criminal investigation into possible obstruction¹¹, retention¹² of information related to the national defense¹³. There's a grand jury at work. And the second part of what the government's doing is a review by the director of national intelligence to look into the national security implications of having secrets in the basement of a resort in Florida where they don't belong. The judge says the national security investigation can continue even if criminal prosecutors need to pause, but it's not clear that's going to work as easily in practice in the real world as the judge says it will.

MARTIN: So what's the Justice Department's response to this ruling? I mean, they were not supportive. They pushed back very strongly against the idea of a special master, even last week.

JOHNSON: They did. Anthony Coley, a spokesman for the DOJ, says they're reviewing the opinion and considering appropriate next steps. Last week, prosecutors even suggested they might appeal if the judge moved to appoint a special master. So we'll watch for more on that this week. And, you know, former Justice Department officials were critical of the judge's reasoning, worried that it could apply to other defendants¹⁴ in other cases. Another reason, perhaps, to appeal - they say President Biden is in charge now. He controls how and when to assert executive privilege, not Donald Trump, especially in the context of this important criminal probe.

MARTIN: So what's the timeline going forward, Carrie?

JOHNSON: The judge says both sides need to get back to her by Friday with a list of candidates to be the special master, and she's going to take it from there.

MARTIN: NPR national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson, helping¹⁵ us parse¹⁶ the decision of this federal judge to allow Trump his request to appoint a special master, thank you so much.

JOHNSON: Happy to be here.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

4 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

7 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

10 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

11 obstruction   

n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物

参考例句：

• She was charged with obstruction of a police officer in the execution of his duty.她被指控妨碍警察执行任务。
• The road was cleared from obstruction.那条路已被清除了障碍。

12 retention   

n.保留，保持，保持力，记忆力

参考例句：

• They advocate the retention of our nuclear power plants.他们主张保留我们的核电厂。
• His retention of energy at this hour is really surprising.人们惊叹他在这个时候还能保持如此旺盛的精力。

13 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

14 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

15 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

16 parse   

v.从语法上分析；n.从语法上分析

参考例句：

• I simply couldn't parse what you just said.我完全无法对你刚说的话作语法分析。
• It causes the parser to parse an NP.它调用分析程序分析一个名词短语。