— Washington Thursday, a federal court denied the Justice Department’s attempt to regain access to approximately one hundred secret documents taken by the FBI during its investigation of the Florida estate of former President Donald Trump.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon refused to stay any portion of her September 5 ruling that prohibited the Justice Department from using any of the approximately 11,000 documents seized from Mar-a-Lago on August 8 for investigative purposes, pending the review of the materials by an independent arbitrator known as a special master.
In her 10-page order, Cannon disputed two of the premises outlined by the Justice Department in its motion: that the roughly 100 documents at the center of the request are classified records and that Trump has no “possessional interest” in any of them; and that Trump has no plausible claim of privilege with regard to any of these documents.
She added, “The court does not think it acceptable to accept the government’s judgments on these significant and contentious issues without further assessment by a neutral third party in a timely and orderly manner.”
Former President Donald Trump prepares to deliver a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on August 6, 2022, at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas. Photograph by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Cannon stated in her order that while she agrees with the Justice Department that “the public is best served by even-handed adherence to established principles of civil and criminal procedure,” regardless of who is involved, “it is also true that even-handed procedure does not require unquestioning faith in the Department of Justice’s determinations.”
In their ongoing criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of sensitive records, federal prosecutors requested last week that the government be granted access to a batch of slightly more than 100 classified documents, but the judge’s order prevents investigators from using these materials for the time being.
The Justice Department also requested that Cannon lift a second provision of her Labor Day decision requiring the agency to give classified records to a special master for review.
Cannon appointed Judge Raymond Dearie, the former chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, as the special master to sift through the materials seized by the FBI during the August 8 search for any that may be subject to attorney-client or executive privilege claims.
In their application for a stay, federal prosecutors contended that the government and the general public would suffer irreparable injury if Cannon’s judgment safeguarding the records were allowed to stand. The national security and intelligence interests of the nation would be jeopardized if the Justice Department temporarily halted its investigation, according to the attorneys and top national security officers of the department.
Trump’s legal team, though, contested the Justice Department’s request, alleging in a Monday filing that some of the confiscated documents with classification marks may no longer be classified. In addition, they portrayed the situation surrounding Trump’s allegedly unlawful removal and storage of classified information as “an out-of-control document storage conflict.”
Cannon’s decision to deny the Justice Department’s request for a stay prepares the way for the government to file an appeal with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, as prosecutors indicated they would do.
Cannon’s decision not to restore the Justice Department’s access to the confiscated papers is the latest turn in the National Archives and Records Administration’s long-running effort to reclaim records taken by Trump to Mar-a-Lago in January 2021.
Agents took 33 things, boxes, or containers containing 103 papers marked “confidential,” “secret,” or “top secret” from a storage room and workstations in Trump’s office during the FBI’s search of the South Florida property on August 8, according to a detailed property list made public this month.
According to government attorneys, federal agents also removed empty folders with classified banners, along with printed news articles, books, photographs, and articles of apparel.
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