‘Where’s the beef?’ Special master shows frustration in Trump documents case

Ex-president’s legal team and DoJ spar over contents of seized documents

A special master put in charge of reviewing documents seized by the Justice Department from Donald Trump’s home is growing increasingly frustrated over the lack of progress being made in the case.

CNN reported that Judge Raymond Dearie expressed that frustration on Tuesday during a hearing as the two sides disputed the origin of some of the seized records.

“Where’s the beef? I need some beef,” he was quoted as saying.

The moment was not his only admonition of the attorneys on Tuesday; Mr Dearie also reportedly warned both sides against delay tactics meant to disrupt the short timeframe the special master has to review the seized documents. Mr Dearie was appointed to the case via a controversial decision from a Trump-appointed judge overseeing Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the DoJ, though the agency has appealed his appointment and successfully barred him from reviewing classified materials taken from Mar-a-Lago.

On Tuesday, Mr Dearie reportedly warned attorneys: “I don’t want to be dealing with nonsense objections, nonsense assertions, especially when I have one month to deal with who knows how many assertions.”

Much of Mr Dearie’s work is expected to be completed over the next two months as the Trump team outlines which documents it hopes will be shielded from the DoJ thanks to claims of executive or attorney-client privilege. Despite this, his attorneys have yet to back up his assertion that any of the documents marked “classified” were in fact declassified.

The case erupted in September following the raid of Mar-a-Lago by FBI agents, turning Mr Trump completely against the agency and its personnel and inspiring a wave of angry criticism from the former president.

In the weeks since his assault on the FBI’s integrity began, the agency and Department of Homeland Security have jointly warned of an increase in threats against the lives of US federal agents.