- The first hearing in the DOJ's Trump probe involving the special master started on a chaotic note.
- All callers were left unmuted, and shouted over each other in the early minutes of the hearing.
The opening of special master Raymond Dearie's inaugural hearing sounded like a garble of white noise as technical difficulties marked the start of the highly consequential proceeding.
Staff in the Brooklyn courtroom scrambled to get the audio right as the volume for all audio callers was left unmuted, leading to a shouting match in the early moments of the hearing before serious national security matters were discussed.
After the chaos at the hearing, Dearie pressed former President Donald Trump's lawyers about their arguments that they had already declassified documents taken to Mar-a-Lago.
According to Politico reporter Kyle Cheney, participants who were left unmuted spoke simultaneously, causing havoc in the courtroom. One participant sang America the Beautiful, while another repeated the phrase "Trump is a criminal." Over the cacophony of voices, people yelled at each other to mute themselves.
—Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 20, 2022
"Mute the phones, assholes! Mute the phones, assholes!" someone calling into the hearing said, according to Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake.
In a Tuesday court filing, Trump's lawyers claimed that some of the documents stored at Mar-a-Lago may be privileged because Trump left handwritten notes on them.
During the hearing, Dearie seemed to agree with the government's assessment of which documents are classified, saying, "What business is it of the court? As far as I'm concerned that's the end of it."