An independent expert, a federal magistrate, is now in charge of reviewing the thousands of documents seized in early August at Donald Trump’s house, a judge ruled Thursday, who also confirmed a decision that limits their access by investigators. .
The Republican billionaire had asked the court to appoint an independent third party to examine the documents seized during the August 8 raid, spectacular and unprecedented for a former president.
Federal investigators behind this police operation suspect that Donald Trump kept top secret documents in his home.
On Monday, the US Department of Justice said it accepted one of the names proposed by Donald Trump’s lawyers, and Florida Judge Aileen Cannon confirmed the name of this independent expert on Thursday night. It’s Raymond Dearie, 78, a partially retired federal judge from New York.
Violation of an espionage law?
Aileen Cannon, whom Donald Trump himself appointed in 2020, also confirmed on Thursday a previous decision challenged by the Justice Department.
Last week it blocked the use of all the documents seized during the search as long as the independent expert had not commented. The ministry asked to be able to access at least some of them, a hundred, classified. The judge denied the request on Thursday.
On August 8, the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s residence in Florida, and seized boxes of confidential documents that the Republican had not returned after leaving the White House, despite multiple requests.
Federal investigators suspect that the Republican thus violated a US law on espionage that very strictly regulates the possession of confidential documents. Donald Trump assured that these documents had been declassified.
Source: BFM TV
