Raymond Dearie, US District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York, was appointed on Thursday special master as part of the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into former president Trump.

The court order appointing the special master will slow the DOJ’s investigation into documents held by the former president. The order granting the motion was mindful of this fact, noting in footnote 4, “[i]n general, when courts appoint a special master to review seized materials for potential claims of privilege, the government naturally (and often voluntarily) is temporarily prevented from further review and use of the subject materials.”

The order gave a deadline of November 30 for the special master to complete his review.

On September 5, the judge granted Trump’s request for appointment of a special master, enjoining the DOJ for using the materials for “criminal investigative purposes”, but permitting the government to use the documents for “purposes of intelligence classification and national security assessments.”

On September 8, the government filed a motion requesting the authority to further review the documents, along with a declaration by the Assistant Director of Counterintelligence of the FBI stating that the “Government’s Security Assessments are ‘inextricably linked’ to the Government’s criminal investigation” and that it would be “exceedingly difficult” to separate the personnel involved into (separate groups for criminal investigation and security assessments).

Raymond Dearie declared himself before being appointed special master. Dearie served as a federal prosecutor before being appointed to the federal judiciary by President Ronald Reagan in 1986.