The Department of Justice has approved one of Donald Trump’s two candidates for special master to review documents seized from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Prosecutors said they accepted Raymond Dearie, a senior U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of New York, according to a court filing on Monday. Dearie and DOJ picks Barbara Jones and Thomas Griffith “each have substantial judicial experience” that makes them viable candidates for special master, the document said.
Dearie, Jones, and Griffith all have presided over federal criminal and civil cases, with Dearie continuing to serve as a federal judge in New York. Further, Dearie is known to be a former Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge linked to warrants against onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Jones is a former U.S district judge for New York, and Griffith served as a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
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Trump’s second pick, Paul Huck Jr., is a former partner of Jones Day law firm and contributor to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization. Huck was “respectfully opposed” by the government for not having similar experiences as his fellow candidates.
However, all four candidates are still on the table to be chosen. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida accepted Trump’s bid for a special master to track down any privileged information obtained in the search over the DOJ’s objections. The Trump team and DOJ have also turned in proposals for how to move forward, including over the speed of the third-party review. The DOJ has also signaled it plans to appeal the special master order.
The new DOJ court document, penned by U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez, noted Dearie is currently on “senior active” status, while both Jones and Griffith are immediately available if chosen.
If Dearie is selected, the federal government would have to defer to the Supreme Court on what rules and restrictions for outside employment would apply to his service.
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The DOJ’s acceptance of Dearie comes after the former president opposed both of the department’s proposed candidates in a separate court document filed Monday.
However, Trump’s team did not disclose the reason for the opposition, stating that “it is more respectful to the candidates” to keep the information from “a public, and likely to be widely circulating, pleading.”
