The Supreme Court denied a request by former President Donald Trump to vacate an appeals court ruling in the case related to the FBI’s raid and seizure of documents from his Florida residence in August.
In an unsigned order, the high court denied the former president’s request Thursday afternoon.
Trump was seeking to vacate a ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that had barred a special master, who was appointed by a federal judge, from reviewing nearly 100 classified documents as part of an examination of more than 11,000 government records seized in the raid to determine which ones should be blocked from being used in a criminal investigation against the former president.
DOJ ASKS SUPREME COURT TO REJECT TRUMP’S REQUEST TO BLOCK USE OF CLASSIFIED MATERIALS
Trump’s petition was specifically submitted to Justice Clarence Thomas, who referred the request to the court before it was denied with no noted dissents.
The Justice Department filed a response this week asking the high court to deny Trump’s bid, telling the justices that Trump’s position as former president positions him with no claim on the documents.
The high court’s decision marks the latest step in an ongoing legal dispute playing out in three other federal courts, which include the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit, the U.S. District Court in Florida, and a special master’s court in Brooklyn. Trump’s Supreme Court loss is a blow to his litigation battle but does not end the ongoing case over the seized records.
Trump’s legal woes stem from the FBI’s search warrant on his Florida estate on Aug. 8. The former president asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, to authorize a special master to review seized records in order to potentially withhold them from the Justice Department due to Trump’s claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.
Cannon later granted Trump’s request and assigned U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie to the post of special master. The Justice Department was also ordered to suspend its criminal investigation during Dearie’s review, and allowed Dearie until Dec. 16 to complete said review.
The DOJ later appealed Cannon’s order to the 11th Circuit, saying the criminal investigation of nearly 100 classified records should continue and that the documents should not be part of the special master’s oversight.
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The 11th Circuit’s three-judge panel, composed of two Trump appointed judges, sided with the DOJ, prompting Trump’s appeal to the high court.
Trump’s high court denial came near-simultaneously as the House Jan. 6 Committee investigating the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol voted 9-0 in favor of issuing a subpoena for Trump to provide documents and testimony under oath in connection to the January 2021 riot.
