WASHINGTON-
The US Justice Department and Donald Trump’s legal team proposed candidates Friday for the role of independent arbitrator in the investigation of top-secret documents found at the former president’s Florida home, but the two sides differed on the scope of the duties that the person would have.
Trump’s lawyers said they believe the so-called special master should review all documents seized by the FBI during its search last month at Mar-a-Lago, including records with classification marks, and filter out any that may be protected by executive complaints. privilege.
The Justice Department said it does not believe the arbitrator should be allowed to inspect classified records or consider potential claims of executive privilege.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon had given both sides until Friday to come up with possible candidates for the special teacher position, as well as proposals on the person’s scope of duties and the timeline of their work.
The Justice Department released the names of two retired judges: Barbara Jones, who served on federal court in Manhattan and played the same role in previous high-profile investigations, and Thomas Griffith, a former federal appeals court jurist in the District of Columbia. of Columbia.
Trump’s team proposed a retired judge, Raymond Dearie, also a former lead US attorney in the Eastern District of New York, and prominent Florida attorney Paul Huck Jr.
The back-and-forth over the special master comes amid an FBI investigation into the retention of several hundred classified documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago over the past year. Although the legal dispute is unlikely to have any major long-term effects on the criminal investigation or significantly sidetrack it, it will almost certainly delay it and has already caused the intelligence community to temporarily halt a national risk assessment.
Despite strenuous objections from the Justice Department, Cannon on Monday agreed to the Trump team’s special master’s request and ordered the department to temporarily halt its review of records for investigative purposes.
She said the person would be responsible for reviewing records recovered during the Aug. 8 search at Mar-a-Lago and screening any documents potentially covered by claims of attorney-client or executive privilege.
Approximately 11,000 documents, including more than 100 with classified markings, some at the top secret level, were recovered during the search. That’s in addition to classified documents contained in 15 boxes recovered in January by the National Archives and Records Administration, and additional sensitive government records the department recovered during a visit to Mar-a-Lago in June.
The Justice Department had objected to the Trump team’s request for a special master, saying it had already completed its own review in which it identified a limited subset of records possibly involving attorney-client privilege. He has argued that executive privilege does not apply in this investigation because Trump, no longer president, had no right to claim the documents as his own.
On Thursday, the department filed a notice of appeal stating that it would challenge the judge’s order with the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Officials asked the judge to lift her control over her investigative work pending her appeal, as well as her requirement that the department share the classified records that were recovered with a special teacher.
It’s unclear whether Trump or anyone else will be charged.