It’s the latest twist in the department’s high-stakes investigation to determine whether the former president or his advisers mishandled national security secrets or hid or damaged government records. Prosecutors accused Trump’s team of failing to hand over highly sensitive government documents when questioned and taking the extraordinary step of executing search warrants at his South Florida home and private club over the summer.
Trump has said he has been treated unfairly by the Justice Department. Last week, his legal team filed a technical and narrow petition with the Supreme Court asking the judge to reconsider part of an appeals court order that granted the Justice Department’s request to reconcile classified documents with federal court decisions on seized material. review separately. An outside expert, known as a super expert.
FBI agents seized more than 11,000 documents from Trump’s Florida residence and private club, including 103 documents marked with various classifications. The Washington Post reported that authorities had recovered a document describing the military defenses of foreign governments, including their nuclear capabilities.
Lawyers for the former president have argued that the appeals court has no power to bar the special director from reviewing classified material. They asked the Supreme Court to allow outside experts to review these sensitive government documents.
The administration’s response said Trump’s emergency request should have failed because he did not show how he would be harmed without the Supreme Court’s intervention, or that the appeals court’s order was wrong.
“Because the applicant has no reasonable claim to title or privilege to the documents bearing the classification mark … he will not be harmed in any way by temporarily suspending the Special Director’s review of these materials while the government’s appeal is in progress,” Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar wrote in her response to the Supreme Court on Tuesday. “And the applicant further undercuts any claim that he has suffered irreparable harm as a result of the stay by opposing the government’s motion to expedite his basic appeal and urging that oral arguments be postponed until ‘January 2023 or later’.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit also said in its September ruling that the Justice Department could immediately resume using classified documents in its criminal investigations — something lower courts barred from doing so until the special director completed his review. While Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court for permission to review classified documents, they did not ask a judge to bar the government from using the materials in criminal investigations.
The Justice Department on Tuesday rejected Trump’s lawyers’ argument that the appeals court does not have the authority to say what the special director can review, saying the panel of judges has the power to review the entire ruling that appointed the special director, not just parts of it.
Prelogar noted that “the government believes that the district court was fundamentally wrong in appointing a special director and granting injunctive relief” and is reviewing the Sept. 5 order. The Justice Department is expected to file an appeal on Friday.
When Trump first called for the appointment of a special master in late August, his lawyers argued that he had retained some executive privileges since leaving office that the Justice Department believed the former president could no longer assert. In the filing on Tuesday, the attorney general noted that Trump’s lawyers “dropped” the argument in the most recent filing, suggesting that the former president’s lawyers are aware that he cannot invoke the privilege.
“In any event, any such invocation is bound to yield to the government’s ‘proven, specific evidentiary needs’ in its criminal investigations regarding the wrongful retention of these documents and hindering their recovery,” the document reads.
In its other 32-page filing, the Justice Department traced the history of a criminal investigation into possible mishandling of Mar-a-Lago government documents, accusing Trump’s team of potentially obstructing the investigation after a grand jury subpoena in May “Donald Trump” Any and all documents or writings in the custody or control of J. Trump”.
“The FBI found evidence that the response to the grand jury subpoena was incomplete, that other classified documents may remain at Mar-a-Lago, and steps may have been taken to obstruct the investigation,” the filing said.
In response, investigators went to a judge to grant a search warrant, which FBI agents executed on Aug. 8 at Mar-a-Lago. 8.
Trump chose a third of the nine justices on the Supreme Court, which has turned right on conservative concerns such as abortion, gun rights and religion. But on issues related to him personally, the court was disappointed with the former president.
The Supreme Court in July 2020 flatly rejected Trump’s bold claim to exempt local law enforcement and congressional investigators. It shelved multiple challenges to the 2020 election result from Trump and his allies. After the presidency ended, the court rejected his request for a congressional committee to keep certain White House documents. On June 6, 2021, there were riots in the U.S. Capitol, and only Judge Clarence Thomas said he would support Trump’s request.