The Department of Justice appealed the pause of a criminal investigation into the classified documents discovered at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last month.
The DOJ asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a ruling from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that paused the investigation until all 11,000 documents seized by the FBI could be reviewed by an independent third party.
FAKE FILING ON COURT DOCKET IN TRUMP MAR-A-LAGO CASE LINKED TO NORTH CAROLINA INMATE: REPORT
“Although the government believes the district court fundamentally erred in appointing a special master and granting injunctive relief, the government seeks to stay only the portions of the order causing the most serious and immediate harm to the government and the public, by (1) restricting the government’s review and use of records bearing classification markings and (2) requiring the government to disclose those records for a special-master review process. This Court should grant that modest but critically important relief,” the DOJ said in the late-night Friday filing, according to court documents.
Cannon also denied the DOJ’s request for a partial stay of the investigation so it could set aside approximately 100 documents with classified markings from the review. The department claimed the material was critical to the investigation into whether classified documents were mishandled by the previous administration.
The judge appointed a New York federal judge, Raymond Dearie, to act as the special master that would independently review the documents and gave Dearie until Nov. 30 to complete the review.
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The appeal is the latest in the legal fight between Trump and the DOJ over documents the former president kept after leaving office. Trump lawyer Christina Bobb signed a document in June attesting that all classified material was turned over to the government.
The DOJ is investigating whether violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice occurred as part of its inquiry into the classified documents, according to an unsealed warrant for the August raid. Trump has denied wrongdoing, claiming he declassified the material confiscated.
