Judge Appoints Special Master in Mar-a-Lago Probe

A federal judge on Thursday denied the Justice Department’s motion to continue reviewing classified records seized from Mar-a-Lago, and appointed a special master to review the records.

The special master is Raymond Dearie, a 78-year old, recently retired judge. Former President Donald Trump's legal team requested that a special master be installed to sort through the seized documents and filter out any that were protected by attorney-client privilege or weren't government property. The DOJ had argued that it already completed a similar review; earlier this week, Trump's team said that the DOJ's probe had "spiraled out of control." Dearie was one of the candidates suggested by Trump whom the Justice Department didn't oppose.

In her order, Judge Aileen Cannon wrote that "the Court does not find it appropriate to accept the Government’s conclusions on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party in an expedited and orderly fashion." She gave Dearie a deadline of Nov. 30 to complete his work.

Some reports from left-rated sources, such as ABC News (Lean Left bias), highlighted how Cannon denied the DOJ's request to continue its review despite the fact that some of the seized documents bore "'SECRET' and 'TOP SECRET/SCI' markings." Some right-rated sources, such as Newsmax (Right bias), highlighted how Cannon ordered Trump's legal team to cover the costs of Dearie's work.