Federal Judge Raymond Dearie, the special master tasked with reviewing thousands of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, rebuked former President Donald Trump's lawyers during a hearing on Tuesday for failing to back up his dubious claim that he "declassified" the records while still in office.
Dearie, who was selected by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon from Trump lawyers' list of proposed special masters, earlier this week called on the former president's team to turn over any details related to Trump's repeated claim that he "declassified" secret documents that he took home after leaving the White House. Trump's lawyers, who have not mentioned the declassification claim once in their court filings, balked at the request in a letter to Dearie, writing that they may save the details for a defense argument in a potential prosecution.
