The US Department of Justice will accept the appointment of one of Donald Trump’s proposed judges as a “special master” in investigating classified documents seized from the former president’s Florida home last month, it said Monday.
Despite opposition from the department, federal judge Aileen Cannon last week agreed to grant Trump’s request to appoint an independent reviewer to the case, tasked with sorting through the hundreds of classified documents recovered from his Mar -a-Lago-Resort.
Trump is facing increasing legal pressure, with the Justice Department saying top secret documents were “likely hidden” to hamper an FBI investigation into his possible misuse of classified materials.
He has denied any wrongdoing and said the raid was “one of the most egregious attacks on democracy in our country’s history”.
On Friday, Trump’s legal team and Justice Department Judge Cannon each provided the names of two candidates for the role.
But in a court filing Monday, Trump rejected both of the government’s nominations.
The department said in its own court filing later Monday that it would approve the appointment of Trump-nominated Judge Raymond Dearie of the Eastern District of New York in addition to its own nominees.
Justice officials originally suggested retired federal judges Barbara Jones and Thomas Griffith, saying they would accept each of the three because of their “prior federal court experience and exposure to relevant areas of law.”
The filing also noted that the department “respectfully opposes the appointment of Paul Huck Jr.,” the second candidate on the Trump team, a Florida federal judge “who does not appear to have similar experience.”
Trump’s legal team didn’t include the reason for Jones and Griffith’s rejection in its filing, saying, “It’s more respectful of candidates from both parties to withhold the grounds for opposition from the public, and it will likely be widespread pleading.”
It is now up to Cannon to decide whether to name 78-year-old Dearie for the case.
Government attorneys had previously collectively opposed Trump’s special request, arguing that an independent review for privileged material could compromise national security and was unnecessary because a team had already conducted a review.
In addition to examining the documents, Trump faces investigations into his business practices in New York, as well as a legal scrutiny into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and for his supporters’ January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
