Pending the report of this magistrate, a 78-year-old judge partially retired, the Ministry of Justice will not be able to access the documents seized in Mar-A-Lago in August.
Le Monde with AFP
A federal judge appointed, Thursday, September 15, an independent expert responsible for reviewing the thousands of documents seized in early August at the home of Donald Trump. At the same time, she confirmed a decision limiting their access by investigators from the Ministry of Justice.
The republican billionaire had asked the justice to appoint a third independent party to examine the papers seized during the search of August 8, spectacular and unprecedented for a former president. The federal investigators behind this police operation suspect the former president of having kept at home top secret documents.
Monday, the Ministry of Justice said it accepted one of the names proposed by Mr. Trump’s lawyers, and Florida Judge Aileen Cannon confirmed the name of this independent expert on Thursday evening. It is Raymond Dearie, 78, federal judge of New York partially retired.
He is now responsible for determining whether certain seized documents could be returned to Mr. Trump or be classified “confidential” – and would therefore not be usable in the investigations targeting him.
no access Documents for investigators
M me cannon, whom Mr. Trump himself appointed in 2020, also confirmed on Thursday a previous decision challenged by the Ministry of Justice. Last week she had blocked the use of all the documents seized during the search until the independent expert was pronounced. The ministry asked to access at least some of them, a hundred, classified. The judge rejected this request on Thursday.
On August 8, the FBI had searched Mar-A-Lago, the residence of Donald Trump 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 the former president of having thus violated an American law on espionage which very strictly supervises the detention of confidential documents. Donald Trump assured that these documents had been declassified.
Donald Trump, who openly plans to imagine the presidential election of 2024, a storm since against a search which he deems “illegal and unconstitutional” and repeats having been targeted for political reasons.