Donald Trump’s legal team handpicked Judge Raymond Dearie for special master because it believes he holds a “deep skepticism of the FBI,” according to a new report. Axios, citing two sources “with direct knowledge of the closely held deliberations,” said Dearie’s involvement with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, notably the fact he was one of the judges who approved a warrant for the FBI to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page during the Russia investigation, indicated to Trump officials that Dearie may be “a deep skeptic of the FBI.” That experience, according to Axios, “drove the Trump team’s thinking in requesting him [Dearie],” but no official comment would be made on record by Dearie, Trump, or the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. “Trump’s lawyers are betting that has made Dearie more skeptical of the FBI than an average judge—in a way that endures beyond the Page case,” Axios reported. Dearie did not make the cut on the Justice Department’s list of recommended special masters, but eventually accepted the 78-year-old, citing his “previous federal judicial experience and engagement in relevant areas of law.”
