Supreme Court rejects Trump’s document request in Mar-a-Lago case

The Supreme Court on Thursday denied former President Donald Trump’s bid to have a special master vet more than 100 classified documents seized during the FBI’s August raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate.

In a brief order, the justices denied Trump’s Oct. 4 emergency request urging them to lift a decision by the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit that prevented Brooklyn federal judge Raymond Dearie from reviewing records marked as classified.

The justices did not report any dissents in rejecting Trump’s appeal.

The sensitive documents were among the trove of 11,000 records seized from Trump’s estate during the FBI’s Aug. 8 raid as part of the federal probe into his handling of sensitive government records.

In a nearly 300-page filing, Trump’s attorneys had argued that it was essential for the special master to have access to the records to “determine whether documents bearing classification markings are in fact classified, and regardless of classification, whether those records are personal records or Presidential records.”

The Justice Department said in its response that Trump’s request lacked merit and that the 45th president would suffer “no meaningful harm” from the federal appeals court’s decision to withhold the classified files from the special master.

“Most notably, [Trump] has not even attempted to explain how he is irreparably injured by the court of appeals’ partial stay, which simply prevents disclosure of the documents bearing classification markings in the special-master review,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in the filing.

“[His] inability to demonstrate irreparable injury is itself sufficient reason to deny the extraordinary relief he seeks in this Court.”

Florida federal judge Aileen Cannon had named Dearie as special master to carry out an independent review of the records to see if any were protected by claims of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege. 

She later agreed to Trump’s request to temporarily block the government from using the seized materials in its investigation until the special master had completed his review.

The DOJ’s attorneys objected and claimed the hold would hinder its ongoing probe of Trump.

The appeals court subsequently sided with the Justice Department.

The government also appealed Cannon’s order appointing a special master in the matter. That case is pending before the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit. 

With Post wires