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A federal appeals court has issued a ruling regarding a Justice Department motion to gain access to classified documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last month.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday evening gave Trump’s attorneys until Tuesday at noon to file a response to the DOJ’s request to continue using the documents in its investigation, Fox News reported.
Tuesday is also when attorneys for the former president and the Justice Department are to meet with special master Raymond Dearie in New York City.
Former chief federal judge Dearie, who was appointed as a special master by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon earlier this month, directed attorneys for both parties to meet for a “preliminary conference,” Fox News reported Friday. Cannon previously barred the Justice Department from accessing the seized documents until Dearie has had an opportunity to review them for claims of executive and attorney-client privilege.
Fox News further explained that “the Justice Department’s investigation, which is being delayed by the special master process, is reviewing documents recovered by the FBI during its search of Trump’s Florida property.”
In a filing with the appeals court in Atlanta Friday evening, prosecutors requested that a previous judge’s order blocking investigators from the documents be lifted, Politico reported.
Earlier reports said that FBI agents took around 100 documents that contained national security markings from Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., estate on Aug. 8. Trump has said he declassified all documents in his possession before he left office.
The appeals court filing claimed the government faces irreparable harm from Cannon’s previous ruling barring prosecutors and investigators from the documents while they are assessed by a special master, who will also consider any objections to the seizure of the documents filed by Trump’s legal team.
“The court’s order hamstrings that investigation and places the FBI and Department of Justice … under a Damoclean threat of contempt,” the Justice Department attorneys noted in their filing. “It also irreparably harms the government by enjoining critical steps of an ongoing criminal investigation and needlessly compelling disclosure of highly sensitive records, including to [Trump’s] counsel.”
Politico added:
The Justice Department’s widely expected escalation of the legal fight came one day after the Trump-appointed judge rebuffed prosecutors’ request for a stay that would essentially carve out the national security-related records — some bearing markings such as “Top Secret/SCI” — from the outside oversight Trump’s legal team requested.
The filing was an unsparing rejection of Cannon’s handling of the entire matter, saying it has jeopardized national security, is based on flimsy or baseless interpretations of executive privilege and could enable further obstruction of efforts to recover additional missing documents.
“The government’s need to proceed apace is heightened where, as here, it has reason to believe that obstructive acts may impede its investigation,” federal prosecutors argued.
While Cannon appeared to allow the FBI to engage in certain measures regarding the criminal probe, Justice Department attorneys argued that her guidance lacked so many specifics that the bureau was left “to discern that line for themselves on pain of contempt should the court later disagree with their judgments — a threat that will inevitably chill their legitimate activities.”
Prosecutors also alleged that barring access to the documents was also injurious to the U.S. intelligence community.
“The injunction also appears to bar the FBI and DOJ from further reviewing the records to discern any patterns in the types of records that were retained, which could lead to the identification of other records still missing,” said the filing.
The unprecedented raid on Trump’s estate has been widely criticized by Republicans and some Democrats.
Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, for instance, noted on her podcast a week after the raid that it was “bulls**t,” adding that she believes it was politically motivated.
“This is about January 6. If you believe this has to do with classified documents, having to do with b***s**t Trump took with him when he left office, your head is in the sky. This is about January 6 and the never-ending desire to get Donald Trump on something,” said Kelly.
“They don’t want him to run for election again. They’re mad that he did not get convicted on the first or second impeachment, they are mad that he did not get pursued criminally by the New York D.A.,” she added.
“They are mad Russia-gate fell apart, and they are mad he is ahead in the polls, crushing DeSantis, and that his candidates of choice all [won primaries] last week, and the Democrats are prepared to play dirty,” she added.
