Special master gives Trump’s legal just EIGHT DAYS to hand over proof the FBI ‘planted’ evidence
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The “special master” who peruses documents seized in Mar-a-Lago has given Donald Trump’s lawyers eight days to substantiate his claims that FBI agents posted material as they searched his club.
Judge Raymond Dearie included the injunction in a new case management plan for processing through some 11,000 documents — and follows Trump repeatedly making the charge public without providing evidence of FBI wrongdoing.
“By September 30, 2022, the plaintiff will file a statement or affidavit covering each of the following factual matters,” the judge wrote, including “a list of all the specific items set forth in the Plaintiff’s Detailed Inventory of Real Estate.” claims that these were not seized on the property on August 8, 2022.”
The inventory includes items FBI agents cataloged after the Aug. 8 search of Trump’s private club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Justice Department says it contained more than 100 documents marked as “classified,” some with top-secret markings.
Trump claims in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that he “released everything,” which appears to contradict his claim that the material was planted. Dearie, a senior federal judge in New York, also pressured Trump’s team to provide evidence that he had done so.
Raymond Dearie, an experienced New York judge serving as a “special master,” has given Donald Trump’s lawyers until Friday to provide a list of “specific items” they say have “not been seized.”
Trump made his latest allegations of planting evidence, which would be a crime, shortly after telling Hannity that the FBI may have been looking for Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails during the search.
“The problem you have is they go into rooms — they don’t let anyone around — they wouldn’t even let them in the same building,” he said of his own lawyers.
“Did they drop anything on those piles? Or did they do that later? There is no chain of custody with them here,” Trump said.
“Couldn’t that be on videotape?” Hannity asked him. Trump told him that the FBI had asked him to turn off the security cameras during the search, but they went ahead.
‘No, I do not think so. I mean, they were in a room,” Trump said, brushing off the idea.
Some Trump lawyers have made similar claims.
“Did they drop anything on those piles? Or did they do that later? There is no chain of custody with them here,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity
Documents seized during the August 8 search of Trump’s estate are pictured on August 30. Trump’s lawyers have declined to say in legal files whether Trump ordered them to release while he was in office and in authority
Judge Raymond Dearie has pressured Trump’s lawyers over the president’s claim that he has released material — a claim Trump backed up in an interview with Sean Hannity
Judge Dearie wants a list of ‘specific items’ Trump’s team says have not been seized from Mar-a-Lago
He is setting up a schedule to sort 11,000 documents held in Mar-a-Lago, according to DOJ
Trump also called it a “setup” and compared it to “Russia, Russia, Russia” and “hoaxes.”
The submission “will be the plaintiff’s last chance to raise any actual dispute as to the completeness and accuracy of the detailed property inventory,” wrote Dearie, who was one of two candidates for the position held. Trump’s lawyers had recommended to a Trump-appointed federal judge, Aileen Kanon.
A panel of three judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Cannon’s ruling that Dearie had to go through the classified material so Trump’s attorneys could file privilege claims. The Justice Department had appealed, arguing that Trump had no interest in possessing the material.
That panel consisted of two judges appointed by Trump and one appointed by Barack Obama.
It ruled that a Justice Department criminal investigation based on classified documents seized by the club could proceed, and it prevented the special captain from searching the classified documents to weigh privilege claims.
By October 14, the government must file a document detailing all actual disputes involving items on the list to be reviewed.
In September, the two sides will exchange lists of documents that may or may not be privileged, and Judge Dearie will consider the disputed documents. That process will run until October.