Judge appoints special master to review Trump documents, rejects DOJ motion to revive criminal probe
WASHINGTON -- A Brooklyn-based federal judge was selected on Thursday to serve as an independent arbiter to review the materials seized in the FBI's search of former President Donald Trump's Florida home.
The special master will be Senior Judge Raymond Dearie, who was put forward as a possible candidate for the special master role by Trump, who had sued in court to obtain the review. The Justice Department also endorsed Dearie's appointment.
READ MORE: Trump, DOJ submit recommendations for special master review
US District Judge Aileen Cannon also rejected the Justice Department's bid to revive its criminal investigation into classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago last month. The denial sets the stage for the department's dispute with Trump over the search to move quickly to an appeals court and potentially the US Supreme Court.
Cannon gave the special master a deadline of November 30 to finish his review of potentially privileged documents. The schedule puts the review ending after the midterm congressional elections -- essentially guaranteeing the Mar-a-Lago investigation will move slowly for the next two months, unless a higher court steps in.
Appointed by Reagan, Dearie takes center stage
Dearie sits on the district court for the Eastern District of Brooklyn, where he has taken senior status -- meaning his workload has been lightened significantly as he nears the end of his time on the federal bench.
RELATED: Judge unseals more detailed inventory f what FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago
He was appointed as a judge by Ronald Reagan in 1986 and was for a time the chief judge of the Brooklyn-based district court. He also served a seven-year term, concluding in 2019, on the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
In his role as a FISA judge, Dearie was one of the judges who approved one of the Justice Department's request to surveil former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page, as part of the federal inquiry into Russia 2016 election interference.
The department's process for securing FISA warrants for Page was riddled with errors and sloppiness, a DOJ inspector general review later found. The IG's review pointed to omissions and mistakes in the FBI's court filings supporting the FISA applications, including in filings submitted to Dearie.
SEE MORE: Why the FBI's Trump investigation is not just like Clinton email probe
Trump has railed against how the FISA warrants against Page were obtained, making his recommendation of Dearie to review the Mar-a-Lago search notable. Legal observers across the ideological spectrum, including vocal Trump critics, also backed the choice.
More than 100 documents marked as classified seized
Trump filed the lawsuit seeking the special master two weeks after the Justice Department executed the search on his Florida residence and resort. Prosecutors are investigating at least three potential crimes: violations of the Espionage Act, illegal handling of government records and obstruction of justice.
During the search, according to court filings, investigators seized more than 100 documents marked as classified, which were obtained after Trump's representatives were served a subpoena in May demanding they return to the government all such documents. When the FBI traveled to Mar-a-Lago in June to collect the documents, one of his lawyers signed a certification asserting the subpoena had been complied with.
Trump, in his filings in the special master case, argued that his constitutional rights had teen trampled upon with the August 8 search, though Cannon herself had previously said she did not agree that the judicially authorized search amounted to a "callous disregard" of the former President's rights.
According to her order on September 5 initially granting Trump's request for a special master review, Cannon decided it was necessary to bolster public trust in the search and because Trump, as a former president, faced increased risks of reputational harm if an indictment was wrongfully brought against him.
Trump claimed on Hugh Hewitt's radio show Thursday that he declassified the government records that were taken to Mar-a-Lago, but that's not an argument that he's made in any legal setting.
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