Trump Asks SCOTUS to Intervene in Special Master, Mar-a-Lago Case (Newsmax)
By Nick Koutsobinas | Tuesday, 04 October 2022 06:43 PM EDT
On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump's legal team requested the Supreme Court intervene in the legal battle concerning the review documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago home.
Trump's lawyers, in their argument, request the Supreme Court vacate the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling that said the Justice Department could continue using classified documents seized from the president's home for their investigation.
"This unwarranted stay should be vacated as it impairs substantially the ongoing, time-sensitive work of the Special Master," Trump's lawyers wrote in their filing on Tuesday. "Moreover, 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's lawyers continued to argue that last month's unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit compromised "the integrity of the well-established policy against piecemeal appellate review" and ignored "the District Court's broad discretion without justification," NBC News reported.
But in the 11th Circuit's ruling, they stated that the Justice Department could access the classified records. Their decision also included a reversal from a Florida district judge's decision who sided with Trump to grant the former president's request for a special master to review all records seized at Mar-a-Lago — including intelligence records.
"Plaintiff has not even attempted to show that he has a need to know the information contained in the classified documents. Nor has he established that the current [Biden] administration has waived that requirement for these documents," the appeals court judges wrote, according to The Hill.
Additionally, the 11th Circuit cast doubt on whether Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon could grant the appointment of a special master.
The request from Trump's team comes on the heels of the Justice Department's move to expedite its appeal in challenging the appointment of a special master.