In a filing made by his lawyers on Tuesday, former president Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s decision to allow the Department of Justice to continue its review of classified records seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August.
Last month, the Eleventh Circuit granted the Justice Department’s request to use the confidential documents in its ongoing criminal investigation into the former president, and instituted a stay on District Court Judge Aileen Cannon’s appointment of a special master, a court-appointed third party adjudicator. Three judges including two Trump appointees and a Barack Obama appointee handed down the ruling. They ruled that the DOJ was no longer required to present the confiscated materials to special master Ray Dearie for his review.
In their filing, Trump’s legal team argued that contra the Eleventh Circuit, the special master should be permitted to survey the documents seized from the Florida property. The application was submitted to Justice Clarence Thomas for consideration, although he is expected to refer the petition to the full court.
“The Eleventh Circuit lacked jurisdiction to review, much less stay, an interlocutory order of the District Court providing for the Special Master to review materials seized from President Trump’s home, including approximately 103 documents the Government contends bear classification markings. This application seeks to vacate only that portion of the Eleventh Circuit’s Stay Order limiting the scope of the Special Master’s review of the documents bearing classification markings,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.
Trump’s legal team wants the documents that were originally exempted from the special master review for the DOJ’s investigation to be brought back in for Dearie to examine. “Any limit on the comprehensive and transparent review of materials seized in the extraordinary raid of a President’s home erodes public confidence in our system of justice,” they said in the filing.
The case was sent to the Eleventh Circuit after the DOJ appealed the ruling of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — which first temporarily blocked the government from accessing the documents — arguing that the move jeopardized an ongoing national security risk assessment being conducted by the intelligence community.