reported that Trump had retained the documents found by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago with the intention of pressuring the National Archives and Records Administration into trading them for files allegedly substantiating his claims that any Russian interference during the election was a "hoax", as he had constantly maintained in public. On October 14, the DOJ filed a request with a federal appeals court to end the special master review, calling it "unwarranted" since "[the] plaintiff has no plausible claim of executive privilege [...] and no plausible claim of personal attorney-client privilege". Dearie himself also expressed a similar assessment. On December 1, 2022, the federal appeals court reversed the special master review, stating in a clear rebuke against Trump, "The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so." See also Assessor (law) References External links Special Master and the 911 fund Special Master Judiciaries Legal professions