The Justice Department and Trump legal team submitted their lists of possible special master candidates to review the documentsIn a joint filing late Friday, prosecutors and Trump's team each submitted two candidates for the role.
The parties said they would respond to the other's pair of candidates by Monday. It is unclear if there are any objections by either side to the other's proposed candidates. On Thursday, the Justice Department filed notice of its intent to appeal Cannon's ruling on the special master and also asked her to lift part of the ruling so that investigators could continue reviewing the 103 most sensitive documents seized from Mar-a-Lago that bear classified markings.
But the intelligence community decided to pause its analysis of the documents, citing the"uncertainty" caused by Cannon's Monday order. According to Thursday's filing by the Justice Department, the 103 documents with classified markings were already separated from the remaining thousands of seized records.
Investigators have been examining allegations that documents with classified markings were mishandled when they were transferred from Trump's White House to his Mar-a-Lago residence after the presidential transition in 2021. In three separate instances earlier this year that culminated in the August 8 search, the National Archives and the FBI recovered troves of documents from the Florida resort.
The former president suggested that the special master should have 90 days to complete the job, have access to all of the seized records, including those containing classified information, and be permitted to evaluate claims of executive privilege. Trump's team also said that the parties should split the cost of the special master's review, which could include fees for support staff.