Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Tuesday asked the US Supreme Court to intervene in the legal fight over classified documents seized during an FBI search of his Florida home, intensifying a dispute over the powers of an appointed independent arbitrator. to inspect the records.
Trump’s team asked the justices to overturn a lower court ruling and allow an independent arbitrator or special expert to review the roughly 100 classified-marked documents removed from Mar-a-Lago by the FBI on Aug. 8.
Last month a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit limited the review of the spice master. The judges, including two Trump appointees, sided with the Justice Department, which had argued there was no legal basis for the special master to conduct his own review of classified records.
But Trump’s lawyers assert in their Supreme Court application that it was essential that the special master have access to the classified records to “determine whether documents bearing classification marks are in fact classified and, regardless of classification, whether those Records are personal records. or presidential records.”
They reveal that Trump had classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago home
“Since President Trump had absolute authority over classification decisions during his presidency, the current status of any disputed document cannot be determined solely by reference to the markings on that document,” the petition states. They contend that without the special master’s review, “the uncontested views of the current Justice Department would supersede the established authority of the chief executive.”
The FBI says it seized approximately 11,000 documents, including about 100 with classification marks. Trump’s team asked a Florida judge, Aileen Cannon, to appoint a special master to conduct an independent review of the records.
Cannon later assigned a veteran Brooklyn judge, Raymond Dearie, to review the records and set aside those that may be protected by claims of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege.
The Justice Department objected to Dearie’s ability to review classified records, prompting the 11th Circuit to side with the Department.
Trump’s lawyers submitted the Supreme Court request to Justice Clarence Thomas, who oversees emergency matters for Florida and several other southern states.
