Former President Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to step in to block the Justice Department’s investigation into whether or not he mishandled White House documents, which involved the FBI executing a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago residence back in August.
Trump’s legal team filed an emergency request calling on the high court to overrule a lower court’s ruling that blocked the special master, an independent third party, from reviewing the 100-plus classified documents that the FBI obtained from Mar-a-Lago. Special Master Raymond Dearie is tasked with deciding which documents fall under executive or attorney-client privilege. The 100 or so documents were excluded from the 11,000 records taken from the premises.
“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,” Trump lawyers Christopher Kise, Evan Corcoran, Lindsey Halligan and James Trusty wrote in the filing. “In sum, the Government has attempted to criminalize a document management dispute and now vehemently objects to a transparent process that provides much-needed oversight.”
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon initially allowed the special master to review the classified documents, but a federal appeals court panel blocked the decision in September. Justice Clarence Thomas will review Trump’s request as he is responsible for overseeing the 11th Circuit, which is based out of Atlanta.
The full court will likely decide what action to take as the request is high-profile, but there is no timeline for when that will take place.
