UNITED STATES NEWS

Arbiter in Trump docs probe signals intent to move quickly

Sep 20, 2022, 7:00 PM | Updated: Sep 21, 2022, 10:28 am

WASHINGTON (AP) — The independent arbiter tasked with inspecting documents seized in an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home said Tuesday he intends to push briskly through the review process and appeared skeptical of the Trump team’s reluctance to say whether it believed the records had been declassified.

“We’re going to proceed with what I call responsible dispatch,” Raymond Dearie, a veteran Brooklyn judge, told lawyers for Trump and the Justice Department in their first meeting since his appointment last week as a so-called special master.

The purpose of the meeting was to sort out next steps in a review process expected to slow by weeks, if not months, the criminal investigation into the retention of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House. As special master, Dearie will be responsible for sifting through the thousands of documents recovered during the Aug. 8 FBI search and segregating any that might be protected by claims of executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.

Though Trump’s lawyers had requested the appointment of a special master to ensure an independent review of the documents, they have resisted Dearie’s request for more information about whether the seized records had been previously declassified — as Trump has maintained. His lawyers have consistently stopped short of that claim even as they asserted in a separate filing Tuesday that the Justice Department had not proven that the documents were classified. In any event, they say, a president has absolute authority to declassify information.

“In the case of someone who has been president of the United States, they have unfettered access along with unfettered declassification authority,” one of Trump’s lawyers, James Trusty, said in court Tuesday.

But Dearie said that if Trump’s lawyers will not actually assert that the records have been declassified, and the Justice Department instead makes an acceptable case that they remain classified, then he would be inclined to regard them as classified.

“As far as I’m concerned,” he said, “that’s the end of it.”

In a letter to Dearie on Monday night, the lawyers said the declassification issue might be part of Trump’s defense in the event of an indictment. And Trusty said in court Tuesday that the Trump team should not be forced at this point in the investigation to disclose details of a possible defense based on the idea the records had been declassified.

He denied that the lawyers were trying to engage in “gamesman-like” behavior but instead said it was a process that required “baby steps.” He said the right time for the discussion is whenever Trump presses forward with a claim to get any seized property back.

Dearie said he understood the position but observed, “I guess my view of it is, you can’t have your cake and eat it” too.

The resistance to the judge’s request was notable because it was Trump’s lawyers, not the Justice Department, who had requested the appointment of a special master and because the recalcitrance included an acknowledgment that the probe could be building toward an indictment.

Despite the focus on whether the seized documents are classified or not, the three statutes the Justice Department listed on a warrant as part of its investigation do not require that the mishandled information be classified in order for prosecutors to initiate a criminal case.

The Trump team has also questioned the feasibility of some of the deadlines for the special master’s review. That work includes inspecting the roughly 11,000 documents, including about 100 marked as classified, that were taken during the FBI’s search.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who granted the Trump team’s request for a special master, had set a Nov. 30 deadline for Dearie’s review and instructed him to prioritize the tranche of classified records.

Dearie, a Ronald Reagan appointee whose name is on the atrium of his Brooklyn courthouse, made clear during Tuesday’s meeting that he intended to meet the deadlines, saying there was “little time” to complete the assigned tasks.

Julie Edelstein, a Justice Department lawyer, said she was hopeful that the department could get the documents digitized and provided to Trump’s lawyers by early next week. She noted that the department had given the legal team a list of five vendors approved by the government for the purposes of scanning, hosting and otherwise processing the seized records.

After some haggling, Dearie instructed Trusty’s lawyers to choose a vendor by Friday.

Earlier Tuesday, the Trump legal team urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to leave in place Cannon’s order temporarily barring the Justice Department’s use of the classified records for its criminal investigation while Dearie completes his review. The department is also contesting Cannon’s requirement that it provide Dearie with classified materials for his review, saying such records are not subject to any possible claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.

The department has also said that Cannon’s order has impeded its investigation.

Trump’s lawyers called those concerns overblown in a response Tuesday, saying investigators could still do other work on the probe even without scrutinizing the seized records.

“Ultimately, any brief delay to the criminal investigation will not irreparably harm the Government,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “The injunction does not preclude the Government from conducting a criminal investigation, it merely delays the investigation for a short period while a neutral third party reviews the documents in question.”

_____

Sisak reported from New York.

Follow AP’s coverage of the search at Mar-a-Lago at https://apnews.com/hub/mar-a-lago

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

United States News

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, early Nov. 4, 2020, in Wa...

Associated Press

Trump blasts federal indictment as ‘ridiculous’ and ‘baseless’ in speech to Republicans in Georgia

Former President Donald Trump is blasting his historic federal indictment as “ridiculous” and “baseless" in speech to Republicans in Georgia.

17 hours ago

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the North Carolina Republ...

Associated Press

DeSantis argues he’s top Trump alternative even as ex-president’s indictment overshadows 2024 race

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Republican White House candidate Donald Trump. The Florida governor sought to project strength amid the turmoil by campaigning in Oklahoma — one of more than a dozen states scheduled to hold its Republican primary on Super Tuesday, weeks after the earliest states vote. He also notched the endorsement of the state’s […]

17 hours ago

FILE - This photo taken with a drone shows portions of a Norfolk and Southern freight train that de...

Associated Press

Federal regulators promise safety review at all the major freight railroads

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Federal Railroad Administration recently completed a review of Norfolk Southern’s safety culture in the wake of the Febuary’s fiery derailment in Ohio, and officials plan to follow up with similar investigations of all the major freight railroads over the next year. A report will be released soon on what proposed […]

17 hours ago

Associated Press

US confirms China has had a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — China has been operating a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019, part of a global effort by Beijing to upgrade its intelligence-gathering capabilities, according to a Biden administration official. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the U.S. intelligence community […]

17 hours ago

FILE - U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting o...

Associated Press

North Carolina GOP votes to censure Sen. Tillis for support of LGBTQ+ rights, immigration policies

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Republicans delegates in North Carolina voted Saturday at their annual convention to censure Thom Tillis, the state’s senior U.S. senator, for supporting policies they said violate key tenets of the GOP platform. As Sen. Tillis has gained influence in Congress for his willingness to work across the aisle, his record on […]

17 hours ago

Associated Press

North Dakota tribe buys idle oil pipeline from Enbridge

NEW TOWN, N.D. (AP) — A Native American tribe in North Dakota bought an idle pipeline from the energy company Enbridge to help deliver oil from wells on its reservation to the broader market. The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation announced the deal Friday but didn’t disclose how much it paid. The tribe said it […]

17 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

...

OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center

5 mental health myths you didn’t know were made up

Helping individuals understand mental health diagnoses like obsessive compulsive spectrum disorder or generalized anxiety disorder isn’t always an easy undertaking. After all, our society tends to spread misconceptions about mental health like wildfire. This is why being mindful about how we talk about mental health is so important. We can either perpetuate misinformation about already […]

...

OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center

How to identify the symptoms of 3 common anxiety disorders

Living with an anxiety disorder can be debilitating and cause significant stress for those who suffer from the condition.

(Photo by Michael Matthey/picture alliance via Getty Images)...

Cox Communications

Valley Boys & Girls Club uses esports to help kids make healthy choices

KTAR’s Community Spotlight focuses on the Boys & Girls Club of the Valley and the work to incorporate esports into children's lives.

Arbiter in Trump docs probe signals intent to move quickly