A federal appeals court is hearing arguments Tuesday on whether to shut down an independent arbiter’s review of documents seized in an FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home.
The Justice Department has asked the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to end the review process, saying the appointment of a so-called special master has unnecessarily delayed its investigation into the presence of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Lawyers for Trump want the special master’s work to continue. Both sides will argue Tuesday before the appeals court.
The special master, a veteran Brooklyn judge named Raymond Dearie, was appointed in September at the Trump team’s request. He was tasked with conducting an independent inspection of the roughly 13,000 documents seized in the Aug. 8 raid and filtering out from the criminal investigation any that might be covered by claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege….