Mar-a-Lago Document Case Headed to Supreme Court
With former President Donald Trump still very much in the crosshairs of the Biden administration’s Justice Department, a new angle in the battle over the seized documents from Mar-a-Lago has emerged.
Trump, who has repeatedly declared that the documents in question were declassified before transport to a secure area at his Florida estate, is now asking the Supreme Court to get involved.
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team has elevated its legal battle to the Supreme Court, requesting that Justice Clarence Thomas, who has jurisdiction over the 11th Circuit, vacate the stay by the court that allowed the Justice Department to continue its review of classified documents seized during the FBI’s unprecedented raid of Mar-a-Lago.
Advertisement - story continues belowU.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 court-appointed Special Master Raymond Dearie from reviewing those materials. The panel had limited Dearie’s review to only the non-classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.
This is where Trump’s team got involved.
“The unprecedented circumstances presented by this case—an investigation of the Forty-Fifth President of the United States by the administration of his political rival and successor—compelled the District Court to acknowledge the significant need for enhanced vigilance and to order the appointment of a Special Master to ensure fairness, transparency, and maintenance of the public trust,” the filing states.
Advertisement - story continues below“That appointment order is simply not appealable on an interlocutory basis and was never before the Eleventh Circuit. Nonetheless, the Eleventh Circuit granted a stay of the Special Master Order, effectively compromising the integrity of the well-established policy against piecemeal appellate review and ignoring the District Court’s broad discretion without justification,” the filing continues.
The DOJ’s investigation into the matter has been decried by Trump as a “witch hunt”, with many in the GOP suggesting that the purpose of the probe is merely to stymie a potential 2024 presidential run by the former Commander in Chief.