(Washington) The US Department of Justice announced on Monday that it would accept the possible appointment of one of the judges proposed by Donald Trump to review the documents seized on August 8 at the former president’s home.
Posted at 12:06 a.m.
The appointment, which the department was trying to avoid, comes a week after a federal judge, Aileen Cannon, ordered that an independent expert be appointed.
On Friday, the former US president’s legal team and the Justice Department had each submitted to Judge Cannon the names of two candidates for the post.
The department ended up accepting the nomination of the judge nominated by the Trump team, Raymond Dearie, of the Eastern District of New York, in addition to its own nominees.
It is now up to Judge Cannon to say whether she chooses Raymond Dearie, 78, for this case.
The Trump team had for its part rejected the first two candidates put forward by the department, retired federal judges Barbara Jones and Thomas Griffith.
The department had meanwhile rejected one of the two names suggested by the Trump team, Paul Huck Jr, a federal judge from Florida, citing his lack of experience.
On August 8, the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s residence in Florida, and seized boxes of confidential documents that the Republican had not returned after leaving the White House, despite multiple requests.
Since this spectacular and unprecedented police operation for a former American head of state, Donald Trump, who openly plans to run for president in 2024, storms against an act that he considers “illegal and unconstitutional” and repeats to have been targeted for political reasons.
Judge Cannon’s decision to appoint an independent expert temporarily bars federal investigators from using the seized documents as part of their criminal investigation.
Among the texts collected during the police operation are 18 documents classified as “top secret”, more than 50 “secret” and 31 “confidential”.