Former President Donald Trump and the Justice Department submitted names of two candidates each to serve as a court-appointed special master who would examine documents seized from the Mar-a-Lago raid. 

In a new court filing, the Justice Department proposed Barbara S. Jones and Thomas B. Griffith as its candidates. Trump’s legal team proposed Raymond J. Dearie and Paul Huck Jr.

Both sides will respond to the other’s proposed candidates on Monday.

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Who is Barbara S. Jones?

Jones is a retired judge nominated by former President Bill Clinton. She part of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Born in Inglewood, California, Jones received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mount St. Mary’s University in 1968 and a Juris Doctor from the Temple University Beasley School of Law in 1973.

After completing law school, Jones became a special attorney of the Organized Crime & Racketeering, Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice in 1973.

She was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1977 to 1987, serving as chief of the General Crimes Unit from 1983 to 1984 and of the Organized Crime Unit from 1984 to 1987.

From 1987 to 1995, she was a First assistant district attorney of New York County District Attorney’s Office.

Jones also taught as an adjunct associate professor of law at Fordham Law School from 1985 to 1995 and at New York University School of Law in 2008.

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On recommendation of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Jones was nominated to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York by President Bill Clinton on October 18, 1995 to a seat vacated by Judge Kenneth Conboy. She was confirmed by the Senate on December 22, 1995, and received commission on December 26, 1995.

Jones took senior status on December 31, 2012, and subsequently retired from the court on January 4, 2013 to go into private practice. Currently, she works on white collar and financial fraud cases as a partner in the New York office of Bracewell LLP.

She was appointed in April 2018, to serve as a special master in the Michael Cohen case.

In December 2021, she was named special master for a case involving FBI searches of the homes of Project Veritas employees relating to theft of the diary of Ashley Biden, daughter of president Joe Biden.