Special master reviewing Mar-a-Lago documents urges Trump lawyers, DOJ to refine disputes

The number of pages seized at Donald Trump’s estate was much smaller than previously estimated and a special master reviewing the documents encouraged lawyers for Trump and the government on Tuesday to narrow their disputes about them so the review can be completed by a Dec. 16 deadline.

U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, the special master, said the number of pages of non-classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago he is reviewing is 21,792 – much less than the 200,000 pages estimated.

A vendor estimated the larger figure based on the length of typical business documents, according to Stephen Marzen, a Justice Department lawyer.

Lawyers for both sides are scheduled to provide Dearie with a list of documents by Nov. 12 that could potentially fall under personal or fall under attorney-client privilege or executive privilege. The Justice Department is investigating possible criminal violations of the Espionage Act or obstruction of justice, but government lawyers couldn’t use personal or privileged documents in building a case.

Dearie asked lawyers for both sides to estimate how many documents might be disputed before they provide a final list of disputes by Nov. 12 so he can potentially hire more staffers to help his review. He wants to hit his Dec. 16 deadline U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon set for the review.

“That is of course a bit of a concern, not knowing whether I will get 10 or 10,000,” Dearie said.

Dearie also asked lawyers for both sides to narrow their disputes.

One document he described is a letter from Trump to the Justice Department. Dearie says either it was sent or not sent, meaning it could remain privileged or not.

“I don’t want to be dealing with nonsense objections or nonsense assertions,” Dearie said.

Trump lawyer James Trusty said the letter was unsigned, so he doesn’t know whether it was sent. Government lawyers couldn’t say immediately whether it matched letters the department received.

Trusty used the example to chide government lawyers who said they were eager to move quickly through the review.

“That’s a cute bit of jiu-jitsu after saying how ready they were and were citing the fact that they think it’s been sent,” Trusty said. “This shouldn’t be gamesmanship of saying, ‘Well, we think it’s not privileged but we have to find something the government possesses.'”

Benjamin Hawk, deputy chief of the department’s counterintelligence section, denied playing games and argued Trump should know whether he sent the letter.

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“Respectfully, I hope it is clear that there is no gamesmanship on behalf of the government,” Hawk said.

Another dispute dealt with executive privilege. Trump claimed one document was both personal and the subject of executive privilege, a policy to keep presidential communications confidential to ensure candid advice from aides. But a document couldn’t be both a personal record and a government record.

“Unless I’m wrong and I’ve been wrong before, there’s a certain incongruity there,” Dearie said. “We’re going to have to deal with that sooner rather than later.”

Lawyers didn’t respond to that dispute during the hearing.

The hearing came as the Justice Department continues to urge the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Dearie's appointment. But a decision in that appeal might not come until after his review is completed.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Special master urges Trump, DOJ lawyers to refine document disputes