Former President Donald Trump has urged the Supreme Court to get involved in the legal battle over sensitive documents that the FBI took this past summer from his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The former President’s emergency motion to the Supreme Court is the most recent instance of him attempting to involve the justices in inquiries that include him at a time when the top court’s impartiality in politically sensitive issues is under close examination.
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Trump specifically requests that the court make sure that the special master’s review includes the more than 100 papers that are classified. If approved, the request might help the former president in his legal fight against the search and demand that the records be given back to him.
After the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Justice Department and declared that the department’s criminal investigation into the papers categorised as classified may continue, Trump filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court. A court judge in Florida who approved Trump’s request for a third-party review of the documents found during the Mar-a-Lago search halted the investigation’s use of the records.
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The Supreme Court is once again in the political spotlight thanks to the appeal.
He requested the justices earlier this year to stop his White House from turning over documents to congressional US Capitol attack investigators. The request was denied by the top court.
Following a series of contentious decisions this year, including overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court, with its current conservative majority, is already perceived by the American public as partisan. This will likely make the Mar-a-Lago search an even bigger issue in the upcoming congressional mid-term elections.
Three of the present justices were chosen by Trump: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Additionally, conservative Clarence Thomas is the justice who hears emergency pleas for the Supreme Court from Florida, though he nearly always refers the petition to the entire court for consideration.
Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist, and Thomas’ wife testified before the House Select Committee looking into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and supported plans to influence the 2020 presidential election.
Trump is not requesting that the Supreme Court lift the stay Judge Aileen Cannon, a US district judge he appointed in 2020, imposed on the Justice Department’s investigation into access to secret documents.
Trump wants the documents reviewed by the special master, despite the appeals court’s decision to exclude them from the review.
“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 wrote in the new petition.
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Additionally, they disputed the Justice Department’s assertions that including the materials in the special master review would compromise national security.
“The Government argued on appeal, without explanation, that showing the purportedly classified documents to Judge Dearie would harm national security,” according to Trump’s legal team. Senior Judge Raymond Dearie has been designated as the case’s special master. The DOJ’s statement that it might wish to share those same records to a grand jury or to witnesses during interviews “cannot be reconciled,” according to the Trump campaign.
