Trump, DOJ propose four special master candidates to review documents seized at Mar-a-Lago

WASHINGTON – Lawyers for Donald Trump and the Justice Department could not agree on the appointment of special master to independently review documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, submitting four possible candidates to screen out potentially privileged records recovered by federal investigators.

Among the two government nominees is Barbara Jones, a former federal judge in Manhattan who has served in similar special master roles in the federal investigations of former Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen.

Federal prosecutors also submitted Thomas Griffith, a retired federal appeals court judge for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Trump lawyers, meanwhile, proposed Raymond J. Dearie, the former chief federal judge in Brooklyn, New York who also served on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court; and Paul Huck, Jr., a former deputy attorney general in Florida.

The two sides also found little common ground in outlining proposed ground rules for the special master's work.

Justice officials said any independent arbiter should not have access to the 100 classified documents seized in the Aug. 8 search, while Trump lawyers claimed that the appointed master should be allowed to review all material recovered by the government, a cache of more than 11,000 documents.

The parties’ differences also extended to the length of the proposed special master review. The government called for the analysis to be completed by Oct. 17, while the Trump team said the review would likely take 90 days.

The government had opposed the appointment of a special master because federal officials already reviewed the thousands of seized documents and segregated those that should be shielded from investigators.

The classified documents, which included dozens of "secret" and "top secret" records along with empty file folders with banners marked "classified," were kept haphazardly in a storage room and in Trump's office. Classified documents mingled with thousands of unclassified records, pictures and even articles of clothing. The department returned three of Trump's passports seized during the Aug. 8 search.

But U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon authorized the special master Monday, ruling the documents should be reviewed to exclude personal items and for records potentially subject to attorney-client or executive privilege. Cannon also ordered the Justice Department to halt its investigative review of the documents until the special master's review is complete.

Federal officials are appealing the ruling and have asked Cannon to lift the ban on reviewing the classified documents as part of the investigation, pending the appeal.

Federal reviewers identified 520 pages of documents that might contain attorney-client communications. But Justice lawyers argued Trump has no claim to executive privilege, to keep communications from aides in his administration confidential, because he is no longer president and the documents were seized within the executive branch. But Cannon said the Supreme Court hadn't ruled out a potential claim of executive privilege.

More: Trump's relentless attacks on Mar-a-Lago search lack context. What he said vs. what we know.

The challenge for Cannon is to find a candidate agreeable to Trump and the department who holds a security clearance high enough to look at the documents and who is also an expert in attorney-client and executive privilege.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart authorized the FBI search for evidence of potential violations of the Espionage Act for mishandling documents dealing with national defense or of obstruction of justice.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump, DOJ propose 4 special master candidates to review records