The independent arbiter reviewing the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago hopes to go through 11,000 documents as quickly as possible. Good luck with that.
“We’re going to proceed with what I call responsible dispatch,” Brooklyn Judge Raymond Dearie said during his first meeting with lawyers for Trump and the Justice Department.
Dearie, a Ronald Reagan appointee, was assigned as a “special master” who is in charge of going through around 11,000 documents seized by the FBI during their search at Mar-a-Lago August 8.
During the meeting, the attendees discussed the next steps of the investigation of secret information stored at the Mar-a-Lago estate. Dearie has to check if there are any documents protected by claims of executive privilege.
Trump appointee, US District Judge Aileen Cannon, was the one who agreed to the request for a special master. She set November 30 as the deadline for the review. It was later extended to December 16.
James Trusty, one of Trump’s lawyers, said that Dearie’s deadlines were sooner than what was expected. They asked the judge to move all deadlines further. They are in no hurry to give the Justice Department a chance to do their own investigation.
Despite being the ones to request an independent arbiter to ensure a fair review of the documents, they said no when Dearie requested more information. Trump said that all the records were declassified. His lawyers also added that a president is authorized to declassify information.
The lawyers said that the investigators could still push through with the task even if they do not inspect the documents. They wrote that delays in the probe will “not irreparably harm the government” and that the ruling will not stop the government from doing an investigation, but it will merely delay it while the documents are being examined.
To undertake such a massive task, Judge Dearie requested the help of James Orenstein, a retired federal judge appointed by former President George W. Bush. Judge Dearie said that Orenstein has top secret clearance and has the experience that is needed to get the job done.
According to legal experts, Trumps request for a special master may have been a huge mistake.
“Maybe from Trump’s point of view, creating delay and chaos is always a plus, but this has the feel of a giant backfire,” said Peter M. Shane, a legal scholar at New York University.
An appeals court last week said the Justice Department could resume reviewing 100 documents marked as classified in its investigation.
As stated in a New York Times opinion piece on September 28, Since the special master’s review isn’t delaying or diverting the Justice Department’s criminal inquiry, it is not clear what benefits Trump will get by having a special master.
