Justice Department Appeals Special Master in Trump Case

Filing seeks to have all of Florida judge's order thrown out
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 14, 2022 5:40 PM CDT
Justice Department Appeals Special Master in Trump Case
Pages from Judge Aileen Cannon's order for the appointment of a special master to review documents from former President Donald Trump's home are shown last month.   (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

Fresh from a victory at the Supreme Court on Thursday, the Justice Department on Friday asked an appeals court to call off a special master's review of documents the FBI found at former President Donald Trump's Florida home. The special master was appointed by Florida federal Judge Aileen Cannon, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals already agreed to throw out parts of her order. The government's filing Friday seeks to overturn the rest of it, CNN reports. "The court should now reverse the order in its entirety for multiple independent reasons," the motion says, per the New York Times.

Cannon agreed to a special master at the request of Trump's lawyers. The Justice Department's appeal argues that she didn't have the authority to interfere with a federal criminal investigation. Raymond Dearie has already started to review thousands of documents the FBI took from Trump's estate, under a December deadline imposed by Cannon. If the Justice Department wins its appeal, he'd immediately stop his review, per the Washington Post. In addition, government criminal investigators would again have access to unclassified files that were seized. The court gave Trump's legal team until Nov. 10 to respond to Friday's filing. (More Donald Trump stories.)

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