WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department and former President Donald Trump proposed dueling candidates late Friday for who they believe should serve as a court-appointed special master to review thousands of documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home last month.
Trump’s candidates were Raymond Dearie, a retired former federal judge in New York and a former U.S. attorney, and Paul Huck Jr., a lawyer in Florida.
The government proposed two former federal judges — Barbara Jones, who also served as a special master in cases involving former Trump lawyers Michael Cohen and Rudy Giuliani, and Thomas Griffith, who had been on the D.C. Circuit until recently.
The two sides didn’t officially disagree, however, telling the judge that they’d update the court on their position on their opponents’ candidates on Monday.
The filing with U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon comes one day after prosecutors announced they would appeal her order last week granting Trump’s request for an independent third party to review the documents seized by the FBI during an Aug. 8 search, including more than 100 with classified markings.
While it pursues the appeal, the Justice Department asked for a partial stay of Cannon’s order that temporarily blocked prosecutors from using the Mar-a-Lago documents in any criminal investigation. In an earlier filing, the government said it was limiting the request to the classified records, which “have already been segregated from the other seized records and are being maintained separately.” Cannon gave Trump until Sept. 12 to respond. DOJ has asked the judge to act by Sept. 15.
In Friday’s filing, Trump indicated that he would not back down on pushing for the special master to go through all the records, including those with classified markings.
Trump also insists the special master should evaluate potential executive privilege claims, while the DOJ opposes that idea.
Other areas of disagreement include the specifics of the special master’s workflow — Trump wants to send his proposals on categories of documents directly to the special master while the DOJ wants to see a log of how Trump has categorized the materials to first see if there any areas of agreement. The two sides also disagree on who should pay. Trump wants to split the special master’s fees and expenses with the government, while DOJ says that because Trump asked for the special master, he should foot the bill.
Following her Sept. 5 ruling in favor of bringing in a third-party expert, Cannon gave both sides a week to meet and see if they could reach agreement on who to propose as a special master, the precise scope of the review, and practical details such as a schedule and how much to pay the special master. The judge has wide discretion to choose a special master and manage how they conduct their work.
The special master isn’t a judge and won’t make final rulings. The recommendations will be submitted to Cannon about whether any seized documents are covered by privileges that can shield attorney-client communications or information about presidential decision-making.
Whoever Cannon chooses for the role will face intense public scrutiny and the ire of Trump and his supporters if the review ultimately fails to stop the Justice Department from using the seized materials and pressing ahead with its investigation. Trump has a track record of turning on officials he appointed and legal processes he initially endorsed — like turning to courts to intervene in the results of the 2020 election — if they don’t go in his favor.
