U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled on Thursday that Donald Trump does not have to comply with an order by the special master to put up or shut up about his claims that the FBI “planted” information among documents that agents seized from Mar-a-Lago.
Special master Raymond Dearie — a federal judge who was recommended by Trump’s own legal team — had given the former president’s lawyers until Friday to confirm or refute an inventory list of items taken by the FBI agents that was provided by the Justice Department.
Dearie’s order in essence demanded proof of Trump’s claims that some White House files agents confiscated at Mar-a-Lago had been “planted.” It was a claim pointedly not ever made by his attorneys.
“This submission shall be Plaintiff’s final opportunity to raise any factual dispute as to the completeness and accuracy of the Detailed Property Inventory,” Dearie, a former federal prosecutor and a U.S. district judge in Brooklyn, New York, said when he issued the order.