The U.S. Justice Dept. filed papers on Monday, Sep 12th saying that it would accept a former Chief Federal Judge as a special master (a person that has expertise in case evidence) charged with reviewing the papers seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence.  Judge Aileen M. Cannon has to approve the appointment to review the document which was appointed by Raymond J. Dearie.  This has stalled the Justice Department’s criminal probe.  To move forward, Dearie has been brought up as an option by Trump’s lawyers during a legal dispute to discuss if a special professional should review the documents for tampering or other legal issues.

Dearie is 78 years old and works for the B.F.C. (Brooklyn Federal Court). He is on senior status, which means he can reduce his caseload if he chooses because he has served as a judge since the 1980s, a time when the office workload was dominated by cases involving mobs and gangs.  Dearie was nominated to the Federal Bench by Ronald Reagan.  However, it now falls under Cannon’s decision for Dearie to be the special master for the case. Judge Cannon also has to proceed in handling disputes with the said case, including such things as, who will pay for the S.M. (special master), whether the said review will include an examination, or temporarily lift the judge’s prior bindings for the use of the documents in the case.  All of this has occurred because Trump’s lawyer in their defense claimed the documents, taken by the FBI, were not classified, so the Justice Department is investigating if they aren’t classified.