A former veteran chief federal judge from Brooklyn, New York has been appointed as the special master to review documents seized at former President Trump’s Florida estate in Mar-a-Lago.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon appointed Raymond Dearie after Trump requested an independent review of thousands of documents marked classified that were recovered by law enforcement.
Cannon, a Trump appointee, also refused a Justice Department request to lift her temporary prohibition on the department’s use of the roughly 100 classified records that were taken during the Aug. 8 search.
The Justice Department is expected to contest the judge’s order to a federal appeals court. It had given Cannon until Thursday to put on hold her order barring the continued review of classified records, and said it would ask the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene if she did not do so then.
Dearie will be tasked with reviewing and segregating out any documents covered by claims of privilege. It is not clear how long the review will take. The special master process has already delayed the investigation, with Cannon directing the Justice Department to temporarily pause core aspects of its probe.
As RTM previously reported, Trump seems unconcerned by threats of an indictment.
On Thursday, Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that he “can’t imagine being indicted” over his handling of classified documents or his assertions that the 2020 election was “rigged.” Further, Trump noted that even if he were indicted, it would not preclude a run for the White House in 2024.
“I can’t imagine being indicted,” he said. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it,” Trump added. “And as you know, if a thing like that happened, I would have no prohibition against running. You know that.”
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