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A federal judge overseeing a dispute over documents the FBI seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and resort has partially rejected a special master’s plan for a review of the material, including one that would have forced the former president to prove suggestions agents planted documents.U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump appointee, on Thursday afternoon ruled that a plan by Special Master Raymond Dearie cannot require Trump’s attorneys to immediately attest to the validity of a revised list of items the FBI says it seized from the former president’s palatial Palm Beach, Florida compound.

Judge Raymond Dearie, the special master overseeing the seizure of documents from Mar-a-Lago, signaled on Tuesday to lawyers for former President Donald Trump that if they don't make a case that any of the documents were declassified, he would determine that they're classified. Out of court, Trump has pushed the claim he declassified all the documents, and his lawyers have raised that possibility in court papers, though they have never explicitly argued that anything was declassified. Federal prosecutors have argued for weeks that documents seized from Mar-a-Lago that contain classification markings -- like "top secret" -- should be treated as...

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday appointed New York Judge Raymond Dearie as special master to independently review documents the FBI took from former President Donald Trump's Florida home in early August. Cannon's appointment of Dearie came alongside a separate ruling that denied the Department of Justice's request to continue its own review of the documents. "The Court does not find it appropriate to accept the Government’s conclusions on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party in an expedited and orderly fashion," Cannon wrote in her ruling denying the DOJ further review of...

The Justice Department and former President Donald Trump's legal team have found rare agreement in a potential candidate to serve as the special master tasked with reviewing the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. Judge Raymond Dearie, whom Trump's legal team put forward, is an acceptable option to serve as the third-party attorney to independently review the seized materials, the Justice Department said in a court filing Monday evening. While it remains unclear when US District Judge Aileen Cannon will decide who will serve as the special master, here's what you need to know about Dearie and the role he could play...

In a filing late Monday, the Justice Department agreed to one of the choices for a special master put forward by former president Donald Trump to review documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.Judge Raymond J. Dearie, who was one of two choices submitted by Trump’s legal team, would review all of the documents if Judge Aileen Cannon approves the pick. Cannon had previously requested that both Trump and the Justice Department offer up candidates to serve as special master.According to the Washington Post, Dearie has a long record of serving in the criminal justice system.Dearie, 78, still serves as a judge in...