While it remains unclear when U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon will decide who will be the special master, here’s what you need to know about Dearie and the role he could play in the investigation. Dearie, a Reagan nominee, has served as a federal judge in New York since 1986. He retired in 2011 and is now a senior circuit judge. He also served a seven-year term on the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA court. Dearie was one of the judges who approved a request by the FBI and DOJ to surveil Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page as part of the federal investigation into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election. The process federal investigators used to secure the FISA warrants was riddled with errors and general sloppiness, according to a DOJ inspector general report. Two of the four surveillance warrants issued by the secret FISA court on Page have since been invalidated — including one approved by Dearie in June 2017 — because of omissions and errors in the FBI’s court filings. Diery’s nomination by the Trump team is notable because Trump has repeatedly criticized FISA surveillance and has claimed — without evidence — that it was part of a “deep state” conspiracy to undermine his campaign.
What role would Dearie play?
A special master is a third-party attorney appointed by a court to oversee part of a particular case. The special master will oversee the Justice Department’s review of evidence gathered from Trump’s Florida residence and resort and filter out privileged material that may have been seized during the investigation. Trump and the Justice Department, however, have disagreed on other key aspects of the special master review, including how long it should last, who is responsible for paying for it and what kinds of documents are subject to review.
Why does Trump want a special master?
Trump’s legal team has widely argued that a special master is necessary to ensure the Justice Department returns any of his personal documents seized during the Mar-a-Lago search. The former President’s lawyers said his constitutional rights were violated and that privileged materials may have been seized. But in court filings, Trump has not specified exactly what he hoped a special master would filter, other than general allusions to “privileged and potentially privileged material.” In addition to Dearie, Trump’s legal team has nominated attorney Paul Huck Jr., a former partner at the law firm Jones Day, as a special master — a suggestion that the Justice Department disagreed with, noting that he “doesn’t appear to have similar experience.” with Dearie and two retired federal judges the department introduced.
DOJ’s position
The Justice Department has nominated retired federal judges Barbara Jones and Thomas Griffith. “Each has significant judicial experience, during which he has presided over federal criminal and civil cases, including federal cases involving matters of national security and privilege,” prosecutors wrote for Jones, Griffiths and Deary. To date, Dearie is the only candidate both camps have agreed could serve as special master. The Justice Department has argued that a special master should not touch any classified documents and that the review should not include any considerations of executive privilege. The agency had challenged the need for a special master in court before Cannon sided with Trump. In legal filings, the DOJ said it had identified “a limited set of materials” from its search of documents obtained from Mar-a-Lago that may have contained material covered by the attorney-client privilege and was already in the process of addressing privilege disputes. The DOJ wants the special master to move relatively quickly, completing his review in five weeks, by Oct. 17. Trump suggested 90 days. CNN’s Marshall Cohen and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
