The Justice Department and Donald Trump’s legal team each proposed candidates Friday for the role of an independent arbiter in the investigation into top-secret documents found at the former president’s Florida home, but the two sides differed on the scope of duties the person would have. Lawyers for Trump said they believe the so-called special master should review all documents seized by the FBI during its search last month of Mar-a-Lago, including records with classification markings, and filter out any that may be protected by claims of executive privilege. The Justice Department, by contrast, said it does not believe the arbiter should be permitted to inspect classified records or resolve potential claims of executive privilege. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon had given both sides until Friday to submit potential candidates for the role of a special master, as well as proposals for the scope of the person’s duties and the schedule for his or her work. The Justice Department submitted the names of two retired judges — Barbara Jones, who served on the federal bench in Manhattan and has performed the same role in prior high-profile investigations, and Thomas Griffith, a former federal appeals court jurist in the District of Columbia. The Trump team proposed one retired judge, Raymond Dearie — also the former top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York — and a prominent Florida lawyer, Paul Huck, Jr. The back-and-forth over the special master is playing out amid an FBI investigation into the retention of several hundred classified documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago within the past year. Though the legal wrangling is unlikely to have major long-term effects on the investigation or knock it significantly off course, it will almost certainly delay the probe by potentially months and has already caused the intelligence community to temporarily pause a separate risk assessment. The Justice Department proposed an Oct. 17 deadline for the special master to complete the review process, while the Trump team said the work could take as long as three months. Though both sides met Cannon’s deadline to provide potential candidates, their filings made clear that they have core disagreements about the job of special master. That’s not surprising given that the Justice Department had strenuously objected to the Trump team’s desire for such an arbiter, and gave notice Thursday that it would appeal the judge’s decision to grant the ex-president’s request. Central to the dispute is precisely what documents the yet-to-be-named special master should be tasked with reviewing. Roughly 11,000 documents — including more than 100 with classified markings, some at the top-secret level — were recovered during the FBI’s Aug. 8 search. In granting the request for a special master, Cannon directed the department to temporarily pause its use of the seized records for investigative purposes. The Justice Department had said a special master was unnecessary in part because it had already completed its own review of the seized documents, locating a limited subset that possibly involve attorney-client privilege. It has maintained that executive privilege does not apply in this investigation because Trump, no longer president, had no right to claim the documents as his. Though the government does not believe the special master should inspect documents with classification markings, the Trump team maintains the arbiter should have access to the entire tranche […]

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