Posted on by Randy Slovacek

Justice Dept Accepts Trump Candidate For Special Master

It's still being hashed out, but it appears the Department of Justice has agreed to one of Team Trump's picks for a special master to review documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.
Just some of the documents found at Mar-a-Lago (photo: Justice Dept)

It’s still being hashed out, but it appears the Department of Justice has agreed to one of Team Trump’s picks for a special master to review documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.

From the Washington Post:

U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon must approve Raymond J. Dearie’s appointment for the document review — which has stalled the Justice Department’s criminal probe — to go forward.

Dearie was proposed by Trump’s lawyers last week, amid a legal battle over whether a special master should review the documents to determine whether any should be kept from federal prosecutors investigating the potential mishandling of classified material and the possible hiding, tampering or destruction of government records.

Dearie was nominated to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan and became one of the most highly regarded jurists in the Eastern District of New York. He previously served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees sensitive national security cases.

Trump’s lawyers still maintain it hasn’t been proven whether the documents marked “classified” are actually classified. #srsly

It’s been reported that one of the documents found at Mar-a-Lago contained details of a foreign country’s defense systems including its nuclear capability.

Read the full report here.

Interestingly, in their filing last week, Team Trump also asked that the costs of the special master be split between Trump and the DOJ. I think that’s rich since the DOJ didn’t ASK for the special master…