Florida Judge Aileen Cannon Denies DOJ Request – Appoints Special Master

The Florida judge handling the case of the documents that were taken from Mar-a-Lago during the DOJ/FBI raid has appointed a special master.

Judge Aileen Cannon also denied the DOJ’s request to access documents during the stay.

According to the court filing, former FISA Judge Raymond J. Dearie has been appointed as the special master.

Axios reported:

District Court Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday denied the Justice Department’s request to exclude classified documents from the special master review and appointed former New York federal judge Raymond Dearie to oversee the review.

Why it matters: Dearie will be charged with sifting through the records recovered from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, including the classified material the DOJ wants to access as part of its criminal investigation.

Details: Cannon’s previous order temporarily blocks “the government from reviewing and using the seized materials for investigative purposes” but not for national security interests.

• The DOJ has argued that it needs access to classified information for both reasons.

What she’s saying: “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,” Cannon, a Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling.

• The DOJ’s arguments also fail to “establish that pausing the criminal investigative review pending completion of the Special Master’s work actually will impede the intelligence community’s ability to assess ‘the potential risk to national security that would result from disclosure of the seized materials.'”

The big picture: Trump’s legal team was the one that proposed the Reagan-appointed Dearie as a candidate for special master.

• Though the DOJ had offered its own candidates, the agency later signaled that it would accept Dearie, who now serves as a senior judge on the New York circuit, in the role.
• He has until Nov. 30 to complete his review. of the materials.

In her ruling, Judge Cannan called out the government for leaks to the media.