Judge Making Trump Pay for Special Master, Literally
Former President Donald Trump (Getty)
By Eric Mack | Thursday, 15 September 2022 08:22 PM EDT
Former President Donald Trump's lawyers earned a legal win in court, as Judge Aileen Cannon selected one of Trump special master nominees, but Trump is going to pay for it, she ruled, Politico reported Thursday.
Trump literally will be on the hook for the costs of special master Raymond Dearie, a senior judge in Brooklyn, New York, who will lead the independent review of the materials seized by the FBI and the Justice Department during an August raid of Trump's private residence at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump will also be on the hook for any staff or associates hired by Dearie, according to Cannon's ruling.
Other notable aspects of Cannon's ruling, according to the report:
- She detailed the steps the DOJ can take to further its investigation while the documents remain sequestered, including "questioning witnesses and obtaining other information about the movement and storage of seized materials, including documents marked as classified, without discussion of their contents."
- DOJ is cleared to brief "congressional leaders with intelligence oversight responsibilities."
- DOJ can use the materials to conduct security assessments.
These stipulations came in the ruling where Cannon denied the DOJ request for a stay on the ruling to permit the special master.
"The government's submissions, read collectively, do not firmly maintain that the described processes are inextricably intertwined, and instead rely heavily on hypothetical scenarios and generalized explanations that do not establish irreparable injury," her ruling read.
"To the extent that the security assessments truly are, in fact, inextricable from criminal investigative use of the seized materials, the court makes clear that the Sept. 5 order does not enjoin the government from taking actions necessary for the security assessments," she added.