Special Master Raymond Dearie Asks For Outside Help Reviewing Classified Documents… and Trump Has to Pick Up the $500 Per Hour Tab

 

Judge Raymond Dearie, the special master chosen by Judge Aileen Cannon to oversee the ‘classified’ documents seized by the FBI during its raid on Mar-a-Lago, has asked for outside help in reviewing the records.

Judge Dearie tapped Judge James Orenstein, a former magistrate with top secret clearance, to help review the more than 11,000 document seized by the FBI in August.

And President Trump has to pick up the $500 per hour tab.

“The undersigned has determined that the efficient administration of the Special Master’s duties requires the assistance of the Honorable James Orenstein,” Dearie’s proposed plan for the document review said, according to Politico. The order said Orenstein “has experience with complex case management, privilege review, warrant procedures, and other matters that may arise in the course of the Special Master’s duties.” 

Judge Dearie on Thursday also asked President Trump’s lawyers to prove the FBI planted evidence during its raid of Mar-a-Lago in August.

Judge Dearie gave Trump’s legal team a September 30 deadline to submit a declaration.

Politico reported:

U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Dearie, a New York City-based jurist named by a federal judge in Florida to act as a so-called special master in the review of more than 11,000 documents the FBI confiscated, proposed on Thursday that former Magistrate Judge James Orenstein help with the process.

Orenstein spent 16 years as a federal magistrate in the same Brooklyn courthouse where Dearie sits. Orenstein drew attention several years ago for his role in what was semi-sarcastically dubbed “the magistrates’ revolt” — rulings from a smattering of federal magistrate judges across the country questioning government tactics in warrant applications seeking electronic data.

In 2016, Orenstein issued a controversial ruling rejecting prosecutors’ arguments that a two-century-old federal law gave the government the right to command Apple to assist in unlocking an iPhone used by an alleged drug dealer. The judge’s pro-privacy stance in that matter may have led the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to appoint him to a list of approved friends of the court who provide their perspective on surveillance requests.

While the seven-page proposal the special master issued on Thursday bears Dearie’s name and a form of electronic signature, metadata attached to the document indicates that Orenstein — who retired from the court in 2020 — was involved in drafting it. Dearie’s chambers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Orenstein helped prepare the proposal to involve him in the case.

Judge Dearie’s deadline comes one day after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Biden’s corrupt DOJ.

The Justice Department late Tuesday evening told the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that former President Trump failed to show he declassified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.

The DOJ’s filing in the 11th Circuit Court was in response to Trump’s lawyers and sought to resume its review of the 100 ‘classified’ documents seized by the FBI in August.