The US Department of Justice officially appealed appointing the special master into reviewing classified documents seized from ex-President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida with a brief that was filed with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, October 14.

The brief criticised the action of lower court Judge Aileen Cannon, saying that the judge did not have any authority to interfere with a federal criminal investigation. The Justice Department, in turn, requested the federal appeals court to invalidate Cannon’s ruling and put an end to the special master reviewing the seized documents.

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“District courts have no general equitable authority to superintend federal criminal investigations,” the brief read.

“Instead, challenges to the government’s use of the evidence recovered in a search are resolved through ordinary criminal motions practice if and when charges are filed. Here, however, the district court granted the extraordinary relief Plaintiff sought….” it added.

According to the Justice Department, the former US President did not have any basis for interfering with reviewing the executive branch documents by them, who are also a part of the executive branch.

Attorneys representing the Justice Department also mentioned that Donald Trump did not claim attorney-client privilege over the seized documents, which could have justified the appointment of the special master to review the documents. They also put forward arguments that suggested that the filter procedures deployed by the Justice Department were adequate to shield sensitive documents.

“(Trump) has no plausible claim of such a privilege with respect to the records bearing classification markings or any other government documents related to his official duties,” the brief read.

As per the Justice Department, the 11,000 seized documents from Trump’s residence could be crime evidence.

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The special master, who was appointed to review the seized Mar-a-Lago documents, is a former New York judge, Raymond Dearie. While Dearie has already begun the process of reviewing the documents, he could be ordered to stop if the Justice Department is successful in overturning Judge Cannon’s ruling.

However, the Justice Department appeal is expected to take several weeks. Meanwhile, attorneys for Trump have until November 10 to respond. Meanwhile, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will not be scheduling oratory arguments until after the Justice Department files an ensuing response on November 17.

As per the current ruling by Judge Cannon, the review by the special master must be completed by December 16.