The Daily Fuckup

As of Sept. 25, 2022, the Mar-a-Lago special-master fight was no longer about whether a special master would exist. That question had already been answered. Judge Aileen Cannon ordered the review process on Sept. 5 and formally named Raymond J. Dearie to run it on Sept. 15. By Sept. 25, the case had moved into a procedural phase, with the parties still arguing over the rules that would govern the review. ([media.ca11.uscourts.gov](https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202213005.pdf?utm_source=openai))

Dearie had already held his first hearing on Sept. 20. At that hearing, he began pressing both sides on how the review should proceed, including the handling of classified material and how Trump’s team would deal with any declassification claims. The record at that point shows a process still being set up, not a finished system humming along on its own. ([media.ca11.uscourts.gov](https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202213005.pdf?utm_source=openai))

The filings around that time reflected the same thing. The dispute was about scheduling, scope, and access: what Dearie would review first, what the government could keep working on, and how quickly the review could move. In other words, the special-master fight had become less a headline about appointment and more a grind over mechanics. That was the point by Sept. 25 — the machinery was in place, but the gears were still being fitted. ([media.ca11.uscourts.gov](https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202213005.pdf?utm_source=openai))

The public and legal consequence was straightforward. Trump had won a temporary procedural detour, but the detour itself created more court fights and more delay questions, not closure. By Sept. 25, the important fact was not that the special master was fully up and running. It was that the case was still being sorted before the sorting could really begin. ([media.ca11.uscourts.gov](https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202213005.pdf?utm_source=openai))