Former President Donald Trump is turning to the Supreme Court to intervene in his dispute with the Justice Department over classified records taken during the unprecedented FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home.
At the same time, the nation’s 45th president has called on the National Archives and Records Administration to return his seized documents.
“In a nearly 300-page filing, the 45th president’s attorneys asked the justices to stay an earlier ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed the Justice Department to continue using classified documents in the criminal investigation of whether Trump violated federal law relating to custody of government records,” the New York Post reported, on the appeal to the high court.
This coming after a district judge in Florida ordered the appointment of a neutral special master to review the thousands of documents taken to determine whether they were covered by attorney-client privilege, executive privilege, or other protections. The 11th Circuit order exempted more than 100 classified documents from being reviewed by the special master.
Trump stressed in the filing that the raid on his home was politically motivated:
“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.
“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.
“This unwarranted stay should be vacated as it impairs substantially the ongoing, time-sensitive work of the Special Master. 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 attorneys argued that the special master must have access to the classified records to “determine whether documents bearing classification markings are in fact classified, and regardless of classification, whether those records are personal records or Presidential records,” according to the Post.
“Since President Trump had absolute authority over classification decisions during his Presidency, the current status of any disputed document cannot possibly be determined solely by reference to the markings on that document,” the filing application reads.
Justice Clarence Thomas handles appeals originating from the 11th Circuit and he can act on his own on Trump’s request, but the precedent is that emergency appeals are referred to the rest of the court.
Trump also slammed the National Archives in a statement released through his Save America PAC, insisting that the federal agency cannot be trusted to keep classified information secure.
“NARA lost a whole hard drive full of HIGHLY SENSITIVE information from the Clinton White House—more than 100,000 Social Security numbers and addresses, Secret Service and White House operating procedures (EXTREMELY SENSITIVE!), political records, and who knows what else,” the statement said.
“They left the hard drive in an unsecured location, and didn’t realize it was gone for months—some say the data could have filled millions of books, and NARA admitted the material was ‘personally identifiable,’ impacting thousands of White House staffers, visitors, and even one of Al Gore’s daughters. NARA actually had to offer a large ($50,000!) reward to try and get the information back.
“What else have they “lost”? How can Americans trust a system like this? There is no security at NARA. I want my documents back!”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.