(RepublicanInformer.com)- Last week, US District Judge Aileen Cannon overruled a previous order from Special Master Raymond Dearie that said former President Donald Trump must provide any “final” objections or disputes over the items seized in the August 8 FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago before the end of September.
Earlier in the week, Dearie instructed Trump’s lawyers to provide a declaration of affidavit by September 30 listing any specific items in the property inventory they believe were not seized from Mar-a-Lago, along with a list of items in which the content descriptions or the location were incorrect as well as a list and description of any item Trump’s lawyers assert was seized but not listed in the property receipt.
But after reviewing Dearie’s order, Judge Cannon said on Thursday that there “shall be no separate requirement” for the Trump team until after the review of the seized materials has been completed.
Cannon also noted that her order to appoint a Special Master did not include such an obligation since the Defendant has “complied with the requirement to attest to its now-revised inventory.”
She wrote that if any further matters arise requiring “reconsideration of the inventory or the need to object to its contents” while the Special Master’s review process is underway, then both parties can address that with the Special Master.
In his role as Special Master, Judge Dearie is tasked with reviewing the roughly 11,000 documents seized during the FBI raid to determine if any of them are subject to claims of attorney-client or executive privilege.
The previous week, a 3-judge panel from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted Cannon’s previous order preventing the DOJ from examining the classified documents. Two of the judges were Trump appointees and one was appointed by Obama.
With the appeals court ruling, the government will no longer have to hand over the 103 classified documents to the Special Master.
