Donald Trump got the court-ordered review he wanted of documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago home as well as his preferred pick to carry it out. The former president is not happy with the way that review is going.
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According to a summary by Justice Department lawyers, Trump's lawyers objected this week to US District Senior Judge Raymond Dearie's proposal for how his work as special master will proceed over the next few months. Trump objected to Dearie requesting that his legal team verify the government's inventory of what agents seized during the August search and how Dearie had categorized various privilege issues he would be looking for.
The Justice Department pointed out to the court that it was the former president who pressed the civil suit.
The burden of proof lies with Trump, according to government attorneys. According to the court, if he wants the Special Master to make recommendations as to whether he is entitled to the relief he seeks, he will need to be involved in the process.
According to the DOJ, Trump objected to the judge asking for briefings on some questions of law.
Since there wasn't a filing on the public docket, it wasn't clear how Trump's lawyers registered their objections to Dearie's plan.
Dearie, a semi-retired judge in Brooklyn, is tasked with overseeing a review of nearly all of the 11,000 documents seized from Mar-a-Lago by the FBI. About 100 documents with classified markings were taken out of the review by the federal appeals court.
The information is privileged.
If any of the documents should be covered by legal protections, Dearie will make recommendations to the judge. He proposed a schedule for Trump's legal team and the Justice Department to submit batches of documents to him on a rolling basis where they disagree about how to categorize them; he wants a final log by October 28.
Cannon, the judge who will decide whether to accept Dearie's recommendations, must confirm that the government's description of what they took from Trump's Florida home "represents the full and accurate extent" of what was seized.
The Justice Department accepted Dearie's proposal for how to move forward with the review, but asked for a slight extension to his deadlines for the government to produce documents to the special master and Trump's legal team. The DOJ blamed Trump for the delay, saying that all five vendors they proposed to assist with the review were unwilling to work with him.
Vendors who are unwilling to work.
The letter didn't explain why the vendors weren't interested in working with Trump. The Justice Department said in a letter to Dearie that they couldn't meet the Tuesday deadline for selecting a vendor because they couldn't find a third party to do the scanning and uploading.
The DOJ told Dearie that the government could take charge of the contracting process and that they wanted the judge to extend the selection deadline to Thursday.
The third-party company would still have to pay. The Justice Department said in the letter that the government expects the person to pay the invoices quickly.
In light of this substantial change in the party contracting with the vendor, Dearie was asked to extend the deadline for the vendor to complete production to early October.
The case is in the Southern District of Florida.
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