Special Master Calls Out Trump For Blown Deadline

After President Trump blew a deadline in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, the special master called him out and gave him to the close of business today to remedy the delinquency.

Per an earlier order from the special master, U.S District Judge Raymond Dearie for the Eastern District of New York, both sides had to file by Thursday a list of unresolved disputes between them over a subset of the records seized by the FBI in its August raid.

The Justice Department filed its own rundown of the disputed documents in a timely fashion, but Trump attorney Jim Trusty seemed to unilaterally give himself four extra days to file. In a brief letter Thursday night, Trusty disputed claims that the DOJ had made about what documents that Trump wants shielded from the investigation, and added that Trump would file its full response on Monday.

Dearie wasn’t having it with the blown deadline and self-appointed new deadline. In a Friday order, Dearie said that Trump’s filings were now “untimely” and that he needed to submit his position by close of business on Friday.

Dearie’s chambers told TPM that close of business would be 6 p.m. on Friday.

Trump asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for the Southern District of Florida to appoint Dearie as special master, apparently believing that his role in signing off on the Carter Page FISA warrant would pre-position him against the government.

Instead, Dearie has tried to force Trump to back up his claims with evidence. That has culminated in attorneys for the former President trying to ignore the special master.

The letters are intended to lay out what records each side believes are privileged, and for what reason. The DOJ said on Thursday that Trump was making over-the-top claims about what records were subject to executive privilege, what documents were personal records, and what records were, somehow, both.