Justice Department Urges Supreme Court to Distance Themselves from Mar-a-Lago Investigation

The DOJ stressed that the investigation is extremely sensitive.

The DOJ stressed that the investigation is extremely sensitive.

Recently, former US President Donald Trump made a formal appeal to the United States Supreme Court to intervene in the US Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation of the classified documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump’s lawyers are seeking to allow Raymond Dearie, the appointed special master of the case, to personally review the classified documents in question.

This request was previously blocked by the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, hence Trump’s desire to escalate to the Supreme Court. “The Eleventh Circuit lacked jurisdiction to review, much less stay, an interlocutory order of the District Court providing for the Special Master to review materials seized from President Trump’s home,” Trump’s representatives wrote in a filing to the Supreme Court.

In response to this, the DOJ has issued a formal request to the Supreme Court to reject the request and not complicate the investigation further. “As this Court has emphasized, courts should be cautious before ‘insisting upon an examination’ of records whose disclosure would jeopardize national security ‘even by the judge alone, in chambers,’” they wrote.

Analysts have noted that even if the Supreme Court approved Trump’s decision, it wouldn’t make any substantial changes to the case beyond dragging it out. “Even in the unlikely event that the Court sides with Trump this time, all that means is that Judge Dearie gets to look at more of the files that were seized,” said CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law Steve Vladeck. “It would have no impact on whatever the Department of Justice is doing with those materials.”

October 12, 2022

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