Former President Donald Trump has taken his dispute with the Department of Justice over an August FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago to the Supreme Court.
Trump requested the Supreme Court lift a federal appeals court’s decision to bar a special master from reviewing purportedly classified documents confiscated from Mar-a-Lago by the FBI. A three-judge panel with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals partially reversed a federal judge’s order last month granting the special master access to all materials confiscated in the raid.
“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 legal team said in a 296-page filing with the Supreme Court Tuesday.
The former president’s legal team also took shots at the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) over the raid and criminal investigation that stemmed out of a complaint from the National Archives.
“[T]he Government has attempted to criminalize a document management dispute and now vehemently objects to a transparent process that provides much-needed oversight,” the filing says. “The Government’s attempt to shield the purportedly classified documents from the ambit of a Senior United States District Judge who served for seven years on the FISA Court, and preclude review by a former President of his own personal and Presidential records, illustrates precisely why the District Court found a special master was appropriate and necessary under the circumstances.”
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon for the Southern District of Florida granted Trump’s request for a special master to review the materials confiscated by the FBI in its August raid. Cannon, with the agreement of the DOJ, named Raymond Dearie, a senior U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of New York, to serve as the special master.
Cannon barred the FBI from continuing to use the documents in its ongoing criminal investigation while the special master’s review continued. Cannon gave Dearie until November 30 to complete the audit.
The DOJ partially appealed Cannon’s ruling, requesting access to about 100 documents that it says are classified and key to its investigation, as well as a federal audit of the national security risks associated with storing those documents at Mar-a-Lago. Cannon had ordered that the special master’s review should not interfere with the national security review. The DOJ argued in a filing last month that its criminal investigation and the review, conducted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, are inseparable.
Trump’s legal team has claimed that the former president declassified the documents in question before leaving the White House last year, though his legal team has yet to produce evidence of such an order.