New order from Judge Dearie in the Mar-a-Lago documents case

[onenote]

SCHEDULING ORDER 1. Pursuant to Paragraph 3 of the Order Appointing Special Master, ECF 91, the undersigned intends to contact the National Archives and Records Administration regarding its practices and guidance documents concerning the categorization of materials under the Presidential Records Act. Any party seeking to be heard in connection with this consultation may submit a letter of no more than three pages by November 10, 2022.2. An in-person status conference in this matter is scheduled for Thursday, December 1, 2022, at 10:30AM. The undersigned anticipates that this conference will be an opportunity for the parties to elaborate upon their respective positions in advance of the Report and Recommendation to be filed by December 16, 2022. Signed by Special Master Raymond J. Dearie on 11/7/2022. (Entered: 11/07/2022)

[TlalocW]

1. Google doesn't do Legalese to English

Help me out?

[mitch96]

2. +1

[LakeArenal]

3. Yes please.

[iemanja]

4. The judge wants to hear from NARA about how its practices under the Presidential Records Act

Anyone who wants to be heard on the matter has to submit a letter no later than Thursday.

[onenote]

6. What this means:

Cannon's September 15 order appointing Dearie as Special Master stated in paragraph 3 that "In categorizing Seized Materials as personal items/documents or Presidential Records, the Special Master may consult with the National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”)."

This allows Dearie to ask NARA what it thinks about Trump's claims that a lot of the documents DOJ seized at Mar-a-Lago are "personal records" not "Presidential Records" -- the answer given by NARA probably isn't going to be to Trump's liking. We'll get to see how he's going to play it on Thursday, which is the deadline for Trump and DOJ to submit short (no more than 3 pages) letters about Dearie's plan. My guess is that the Trump lawyers are going to argue that NARA doesn't get the last word on whether something is a personal or presidential record, citing the same cases they've been citing all along. Of course, it was Cannon that authorized Dearie to go to NARA, so that's a bit of a hurdle for Trump.

The timing of Dearie's consultation with NARA is a bit ambiguous. As I read it, he's going to consult with NARA between November 10 and December 1 and then there will be a status conference on December 1 where the parties can argue their respective positions, with the Final Report due to be released on December 16. However, I may be mis-understanding the schedule Dearie intends to follow.

[UTUSN]

5. OK, deadlines deadlines deadlines