Washington: US federal judge Raymond Dearie has been chosen to review the files seized in the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home.
On Thursday, US federal Judge Aileen Cannon appointed Dearie and also ruled that the Department of Justice was not allowed to resume the files review, the BBC reported.
It means the justice department’s ongoing criminal investigation will now be slowed down because the government cannot review or seize materials for its investigation until the special master’s review has been completed, the BBC said.
Dearie, 78, will decide whether any documents are off limits in any legal proceedings.
He had been proposed by Trump’s team and the US Department of Justice previously said it did not object.
The former US president is being investigated for his handling of classified materials.
Department of Justice officials previously said that documents stored at Trump’s Florida home were likely to have been concealed as part of an effort to obstruct an FBI investigation.
The authorities say these documents should have been handed over to the National Archives – which US presidents are legally obliged to do upon leaving office, the BBC said.
Trump denies any kind of wrongdoing, arguing that as president he had declassified all the documents, and that they were kept securely at his Mar-a-Lago home.
