Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department asked a federal appeals court on Friday to allow it to continue reviewing classified material seized in an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate. In filings before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the Justice Department said the district court should stay part of the lower court’s ruling that prevents prosecutors from relying on classified documents in their criminal investigation into government record keeping in Trump. Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach after his presidency ended. The department also asked that a third party appointed to review all the records obtained in the federal raid by Trump, Senior U.S. Judge Raymond Dearie, not be allowed to review the classified material. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up The government asked the appeals court to rule on the request “as soon as possible.” Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the unprecedented search of the former president’s estate, the Justice Department said it was investigating the retention of government records — some classified as top secret, including “top secret” — as well as obstruction of a federal investigation. The Justice Department must now convince the conservative-majority Atlanta-based appeals court to take its side in the litigation over the records search. Trump appointees make up six of the 11 active judges on the 11th Circuit. The administration’s proposal comes after U.S. District Judge Elaine Cannon rejected the same requests from the Justice Department on Thursday. Cannon, whom Trump appointed to the bench in 2020, had said he would tell Dearie, who is acting as the “special master” in the case, to prioritize classified records in his review, which he has set a deadline of November 30. to complete. About 100 classified documents were among the 11,000 files gathered in the FBI’s court-authorized Aug. 8 search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort. If Cannon’s ruling stands, experts said, it would likely halt the Justice Department’s investigation into government records. The government’s testimony Friday at times directly referred to Cannon’s earlier rulings in the case. Prosecutors said the judge cited court documents from Trump’s lawyers that argued the former president could have declassified documents marked classified, but those legal documents stopped short of alleging Trump did. “The court erred by granting extraordinary relief based on unreasonable probabilities,” government attorneys wrote. The Justice Department also criticized Cannon’s directive to release classified records to lawyers for Dearie and Trump as part of an outside review of all records obtained in the investigation, and described the former president’s lawyers as potential witnesses to “relevant facts” in the criminal case. research. . The department is also looking into possible obstruction of justice after finding evidence that records may have been removed or hidden by the FBI when it sent agents to Mar-a-Lago in June to try to retrieve all classified documents through a grand jury subpoena. . . Trump’s lawyers had opposed the government’s latest requests to Cannon, telling the judge in a Monday filing that they dispute the government’s contention that all the records are classified and that a special master is needed to help prosecutors under scrutiny. Trump’s lawyers launched the lawsuit over the records search last month, asking a third party to review the materials taken by federal agents and determine whether any should be protected from investigators. The former president’s legal team argued that some materials could be covered by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege — a legal doctrine that can protect some presidential records from disclosure. Cannon granted that request in a Sept. 5 ruling, rejecting the Justice Department’s arguments that the records belong to the government and that because Trump is no longer president he cannot claim executive privilege. Dearie said earlier Friday that he will hold his first privilege hearing on the seized documents on Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Report by Jacqueline Thomsen. Edited by Tim Ahmann and William Mallard Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Jacqueline Thomsen Thomson Reuters Based in Washington, DC, Jacqueline Thomsen covers legal news related to politics, the courts and the legal profession. Follow her on Twitter at @jacq_thomsen and email her at [email protected]
