Supreme Court denies Trump appeal for special master to review classified docs from Mar-a-Lago

The Supreme Court has denied former President Trump’s motion to allow Special Master Raymond Dearie access to review the approximately 100 classified documents seized by the FBI in its raid of Mar-a-Lago.

In a brief order, the Supreme Court states: “The application to vacate the stay entered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on September 21, 2022, presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied.”

Trump’s attorneys last week elevated the former president’s legal battle to the Supreme Court, requesting that Justice Clarence Thomas, who has jurisdiction over the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, vacate the stay by a lower court that allowed the DOJ to review classified records taken in August from Mar-a-Lago instead of court-appointed Special Master Raymond Dearie.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon issued an injunction against the DOJ’s use of the 100 documents purportedly marked as classified to be used for investigative purposes.

The 11th Circuit overturned Cannon’s order and prevented Dearie from reviewing those materials. The panel had limited Dearie’s review to only the non-classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.

The Supreme Court’s order comes after the Justice Department this week asked that the high court deny Trump’s request to block the DOJ from continuing its review of classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago in August.

January 6 Committee will vote to subpoena former President Donald Trump

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol is expected to vote Thursday to subpoena former President Trump.

The committee’s members, seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, will hold a vote to compel the former president to testify about his conduct leading up to the incident, sources tell Fox News. Trump has previously refused to voluntarily cooperate with the panel, calling it a partisan witch hunt.

“What Donald Trump proceeded to do after the 2020 election is something no president had done before in our country,” said Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. “In a staggering betrayal of his oath, Donald Trump attempted a plan that led to an attack on a pillar of our democracy.”

The vote will come during the panel’s 10th public hearing on Thursday. Much of the hearing has focused on Trump’s state of mind in the days leading up to the attack.

Lawmakers argued that Trump had admitted to White House aides that he had lost the 2020 contest but still worked to overturn the result to cling to power. Members of the committee said that conduct had emboldened extremist groups to breach the U.S. Capitol as Congress was preparing to certify President Biden’s Electoral College victory.