Donald Trump and his legal team hand-picked the special master that they wanted to be appointed to review all of the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago as part of the former president's stolen document scandal. In court documents released today, the judge made it seem as if he's losing his patience, said one former prosecutor.
Bloomberg reporter Zoe Tillman posted the recent filing of Judge Raymond Dearie saying that he didn't need to meet with Donald Trump's legal team in person on Dec. 1, as previously scheduled. Instead, all Judge Dearie needed were some clarifications on categories.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is trying to eliminate the special master entirely in a panel before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. In one line of questioning a judge on the panel asked if there was a point at which the case essentially became moot. Trump's lawyer, Jim Trustey said that the upcoming hearing on Dec. 1 or the Dec. 16 deadline were all stopping points. Judge Dearie had previously said that the Dec. 1 conference would be an "opportunity for the parties to elaborate upon their respective positions" before the final report.
In a discussion about Tillman's report, former federal prosecutors Shanlon Wu and Cynthia Alksne shared a laugh about their thoughts about the Dearie decision.
"Judge Dearie may be tired of the utter lack of specifics from the Trump legal team," quipped Wu.
"Or maybe he thinks the 11th Circuit is going to shut the whole process down. Perhaps he listened to the audio of the latest argument?" wondered Alksne.
"Hah! Dearie is counting the days till that 11th Circuit opinion drops," Wu chuckled.
Joking aside, Wu noted later that Dearie may have "canceled upcoming status hearing citing no need for it. He seems to be running out of patience with [the] Trump legal team's failure to provide any specifics in their arguments about documents. Maybe the 11th Circuit will relieve him of this ridiculous assignment which amounts to Trump Judge Aileen Cannon appointing Special Master Dearie to interfere in the Department of Justice criminal investigation of [the] Mar-a-Lago matter."
