News reports (Sept. 16, 2022)
– DOJ partially appeals Trump raid ruling, seeks to keep investigating disputed classified memos
The department asked the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to permit the FBI to immediately regain access to about 100 classified documents and not to submit those through the special master’s review.
It did not, however, ask the court to reverse the independent arbiter’s appointment.
“Although the government believes the district court fundamentally erred in appointing a special master and granting injunctive relief, the government seeks to stay only the portions of the order causing the most serious and immediate harm to the government and the public,” the 29-page filing said.
– DOJ’s court doc.: Motion for Partial Stay Pending Appeal
– DOJ asks 11th Circuit for partial stay, allowing attorneys to use classified docs during special master review
Friday’s motion is a partial appeal that would allow prosecutors to continue working with documents while Raymond Dearie, the special master appointed by Judge Aileen Cannon, reviews them.
– Justice Department asks appeals court to block Trump judge’s Mar-a-Lago ruling
(Archive)
The Department of Justice is asking a federal appeals court to temporarily block a Trump-appointed judge’s ruling that prevents it from accessing hundreds of pages of classified records seized amid the thousands of pages of government documents taken from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home.
“The district court has entered an unprecedented order enjoining the Executive Branch’s use of its own highly classified records in a criminal investigation with direct implications for national security,” the Justice Department wrote in its motion Friday.
On Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon denied its request to allow the FBI to continue to use the hundreds of pages of classified records seized from Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8. She simultaneously appointed senior U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie as a special master, and — in an unprecedented move — gave him authority to make decisions on questions of executive privilege after a request from Trump’s team
Biden’s DOJ
– The Biden administration does not want Trump to know what the FBI seized
Allowing Trump’s attorneys to review the materials seized also serves as a check on the politicization seen by the leaks. Now, if leakers wrongly spin the material seized as heavily classified documents related to nuclear secrets, Trump’s legal team will have the knowledge necessary to push back against the narrative. That alone is well worth the cost of admission, as Trump must fund the entirety of the special master work, per yesterday’s court order.
The Biden administration does not want Trump to know what the FBI seized, especially if what his lawyers discover is that all the documents marked classified were previously declassified, just as Trump has maintained. And the government has already promised to seek a stay from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to halt the special master’s review of the documents marked classified.
But given the speed with which the process can progress now, the DOJ’s effort to obtain a stay based on a supposed national security emergency proves unpersuasive. How the Eleventh Circuit will rule on both the motion to stay and the underlying appeal remains to be seen, but what is obvious to anyone looking is that the Biden administration does not want anyone to know what is in the documents. And that suggests a further setup for Trump.
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