The Justice Department signaled on Monday that it would accept one of ex-President Donald Trump’s picks for a special master who would review materials the FBI seized in its Mar-a-Lago raid last month.
In a four-page filing submitted to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, federal prosecutors proposed three candidates, one of which included Raymond J. Dearie, a former chief federal judge in New York who was appointed by Ronald Reagan.
The other two candidates were the retired federal judges the DOJ had previously proposed: Barbara Jones and Thomas Griffith. The Trump legal team had urged Cannon to reject both of them.
Dearie, Jones and Griffith have “substantial judicial experience, during which they have presided over federal criminal and civil cases, including federal cases involving national security and privilege concerns,” the DOJ wrote in its latest filing.
However, the government noted that Dearie isn’t retired, but rather at “senior status.”
“If this Court were to select Judge Dearie as the special master, the government would defer to the Court and Judge Dearie to determine whether the special master role would constitute outside employment and what rules and/or restrictions, if any, would apply to his serving in this capacity,” the prosecutors wrote.
Cannon — whose decision to approve Trump’s request for a special master and disrupt the DOJ’s investigation into the documents that were stashed at Mar-a-Lago, sending shockwaves through the legal community — will ultimately decide who will be appointed.
Read the filing below:
