- The 11th Circuit ‘lacked jurisdiction’ to review the Special Master Order
- Trump appointed Judge Aileen Cannon ordered a special master review
- DOJ appealed to the 11th Circuit, which stayed part of her order
- At issue are hundreds of classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago
Former President Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the Mar-a-Lago case, after an Appeals Court ruling that put a stop to allowing a ‘special master’ to review classified documents seized from the president’s Florida club.
Trump wants to revert back to a process where a senior judge acting as a special master pores over material seized in the raid of his Flordia club to adjudicate Trump’s claims over material the former president considers privileged.
That could allow Trump to use that review to bounce certain material marked as ‘classified’ or even ‘top secret’ and keep it out of the hands of government investigators as part of their probe related to removal and retention of government national security documents.
Trump’s lawyers asked Justice Clarence Thomas to issue an order that would undo the appeals court’s move on an emergency basis. Thomas, who has emerged to lead the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, oversees the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
It is just the latest turn in fight that has whipped its way through the courts and put Trump’s legal woes back in the spotlight in the run-up to the November elections.
After Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon named a ‘special master’ to review the material seized during the FBI search, the Justice Department went to the 11th Circuit seeking to overturn part of her ruling.
They sought to put an end parts of the order requiring the special master to go through classified documents – with about 100 documents marked classified seized in an August 8 search – and where Trump was asserting privilege claims.
DOJ argued those documents were the property of the government, and that Trump shouldn’t be allowed claims of executive privilege against them, while also claiming to keep attorney-client documents out of the government’s hands.
The government prevailed, even as the special master kept his overriding role. District Judge Raymond Dearie, who was recommended by Trump’s team, remains in the role. A three-judge Appeals Court panel ruled in DOJ’s favor.
Trump’s team argued that any interference in the review of material – which comes amid Trump’s own claim of privilege – ‘erodes public confidence in our system of justice.’
Lawyers for Trump filed the 296-page request trying to overturn that latest order.
They argue that it compromises ‘the integrity of the well-established policy against piecemeal appellate review and ignoring the District Court’s broad discretion without justification.’
Just as DOJ has argued that Trump’s ploy could interfere with a government investigation under the Espionage Act, Trump’s team argues it could harm the special master’s role.