The Department of Justice (DOJ) and lawyers for former President Donald Trump have submitted competing proposals for who should serve as special master in the examination of classified documents that were retrieved from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August.
In a joint legal filing published on Friday, a federal court judge that originally ruled in favor of a special master noted that the DOJ and Trump’s lawyers also had differing opinions on who should pay for the special master’s work. Trump’s legal team argued that the bill should be split evenly between the two parties, while the DOJ said Trump should have to pay for the expenses by himself, since he is the one requesting that a special master be appointed.
If both sides end up paying an equal amount for the costs associated with a special master’s work, taxpayers would foot half the bill for a process that Trump demanded and that a judge appointed by him agreed to.
The filing listed the names of the pitches from both sides regarding who should become the special master.
The DOJ nominated Barbara Jones, a former federal judge for the Southern District of New York who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, and Thomas Griffith, an appointee of former President George W. Bush who has ruled favorably on other Trump cases but who also co-authored a report debunking the former president’s many lies about election fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
Trump’s lawyers, meanwhile, nominated Raymond Dearie, a former federal judge on the Eastern Court of New York who was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan. Their second nominee was Paul Huck Jr., a former deputy attorney general in Florida who also served as general counsel to former Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican at the time.
Huck, who is a member of the right-wing Federalist Society, formerly worked for a legal firm that represented Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. His wife, Barbara Lagoa, is a Trump-appointed federal judge currently serving on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals. If there is an appeal regarding Huck’s actions during the special master process, it would go through the 11th Circuit, and Lagoa would likely have to recuse herself from being involved in the judgment.
According to reporting from Daily Kos, it’s also likely that Huck doesn’t have the security credentials necessary to be a special master in the case, which involves the examination of highly classified material that Trump improperly stored at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The DOJ submitted ideas for the special master while also appealing a ruling issued by Judge Aileen Cannon last Monday, which said a special master was needed to review the documents.
Several scholars have condemned Cannon’s ruling, noting that it granted huge leeway to Trump regarding his claims to executive privilege, which, according to precedent, only applies to the acting president, not former ones. In an appeal filed on Thursday, the DOJ stated that Trump “does not and could not assert that he owns or has any possessory interest in classified records” that he improperly took from the White House to his residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy