U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon also rejected the Justice Department’s bid to reopen its criminal investigation into classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago last month. The refusal sets the stage for the department’s spat with Trump over the investigation to move quickly to an appeals court and possibly the US Supreme Court. Cannon gave the special master until Nov. 30 to complete his review of the potentially privileged documents. The timeline puts the review due after the midterm congressional elections — essentially guaranteeing that the Mar-a-Lago investigation will move slowly for the next two months unless a higher court intervenes. Dearie sits on the district court for the Eastern District of Brooklyn, where he has taken a senior-level seat — meaning his workload has lightened considerably as he nears the end of his time on the federal bench. Appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1986, he was for a time the Chief Judge of the District Court in Brooklyn. He also served a seven-year term, which ended in 2019, on the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In his role as a FISA judge, Dearie was one of the judges who approved one of the Justice Department’s requests to surveil former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page as part of the federal investigation into Russia’s election meddling in 2016. The department’s process for securing the FISA warrants for Page was riddled with errors and sloppiness, a DOJ review later found. The IG’s review highlighted omissions and errors in the FBI’s court filings supporting the FISA applications, including the filings submitted to Dearie. Trump has faulted the way the FISA warrants against Page were obtained, making a point of recommending that Dearie reconsider the Mar-a-Lago search. Legal observers across the ideological spectrum, including staunch Trump critics, also supported the choice.
More than 100 classified documents were seized
Trump filed suit seeking the special master two weeks after the Justice Department conducted a search of his Florida home and resort. Prosecutors are investigating at least three possible crimes: violations of the Espionage Act, tampering with government records and obstruction of justice. During the investigation, according to court records, investigators seized more than 100 documents marked as classified, which were obtained after Trump’s representatives subpoenaed them in May, demanding that all of those documents be returned to the government. When the FBI traveled to Mar-a-Lago in June to collect the documents, one of its lawyers signed an affidavit that the subpoena had been complied with. Trump, in his depositions in the special case in chief, argued that his constitutional rights were violated by the Aug. 8 search, although Cannon herself previously said she did not agree that the court-authorized search amounted to “honest indifference” of rights of the former President. According to her Sept. 5 order, which initially granted Trump’s request for a special master review, Cannon decided it was necessary to bolster public confidence in the investigation and because Trump, as a former president, faced increased risks of harm of his reputation if he is wrongfully indicted. against him. Trump argued on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show Thursday that he declassified the government records moved to Mar-a-Lago, but that’s not an argument he’s making in any legal context. This story has been updated with additional details.
