On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected the former president Trump’s request for the court to become involved in his legal battle and grant the special master access to the sensitive records that were taken at Mar-a-Lago.
The court’s action was included in a brief, unexplained order that wasn’t signed. The case was referred to the full court by Florida-based emergency case judge Clarence Thomas.
Following a preliminary ruling in favor of the Justice Department by the US Circuit Court for the 11th Circuit, which excluded approximately 100 classified records from review by an impartial party known as the Special Master from the extensive records seized from Trump’s home in Florida, the president made his request to the Supreme Court.
In court documents submitted last week, Trump’s attorneys claimed that the federal appeals court in Atlanta made a mistake by letting the Justice Department to appeal a procedural step.
The investigation into Trump’s potentially criminal misuse of highly sensitive government information has been mired in a court battle since shortly after the FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s Palm Beach residence in early August.
In September, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida granted the former president’s request to appoint a special investigator to determine whether the materials seized exceeded the scope of the FBI’s search warrant or contained information subject to attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.
The judge presiding over Trump’s request, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, also ordered federal agents to stay their investigative review of the seized materials to allow the special master’s work to continue — the part of her order that was later partially stopped by the 11th Circuit Court while the DOJ’s formal appeal proceeds.
