Trump’s proposed Special Master U.S. Sr. District Judge Raymond Dearie has already told Trump’s attorneys that he wants evidence that Trump declassified the documents or he will just hand them over to the FBI, given the FBI has already offered convincing evidence that they’re classified. And now Dearie, who has been on the job a little over a week, wants evidence that the documents were planted. Obviously, there is a .01% chance that the FBI planted any documents. They had an affidavit so solid that a judge signed what may be the most consequential affidavit ever.
From CNN [1]:
The special master overseeing the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation has ordered former President Donald Trump’s lawyers to back up out-of-court assertions that the FBI may have planted evidence at the property during their search last month.
Judge Raymond Dearie, the court-appointed special master, said in a filing Thursday that Trump’s team needs to submit a sworn declaration saying if they believe the Justice Department included any items on their “inventory” of materials taken from Mar-a-Lago that were not actually seized during the search.
The declaration must include “a list of any specific items set forth in the Detailed Property Inventory that Plaintiff asserts were not seized from the Premises on August 8, 2022,” Dearie wrote in the order.
It seems clear that Judge Dearie and the 11th Circuit understand the importance of this investigation and want to move as quickly as possible. They surely understand that Trump asked for a special master in order to delay the proceedings as much as possible. Any delay helps Trump. But it seems both the court and Dearie see through that plan, too.
Judge Raymond Dearie, the court-appointed special master, said Trump's team needs to submit a sworn declaration saying if they believe DOJ included any items taken from Mar-a-Lago that were not seized during the search, via @MarshallCohen [2]https://t.co/94j6292Nla [3]
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 22, 2022 [4]
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman