Trump’s request in the Mar-a-Lago documents case is denied by the Supreme Court
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On Thursday, the Supreme Court declared that it would not hear Donald Trump’s appeal on the removal of documents from his Florida property.
The judge refused the request to prevent the Justice Department from using the information allegedly taken from Mar-a-Lago during an August 8 raid, according to an unsigned order made public in the middle of the afternoon. The nine justices’ dissent was not mentioned at all.
Trump claimed that the confidential documents belonged to him and not the government, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled against him and decided that the FBI could utilize the data without a special review. The former president’s assertion that he had declassified the records after leaving the White House was also refuted by the report. The panel of three judges wrote:
For our part, we cannot discern why [Trump] would have an individual interest in or need for any of the one-hundred documents with classification markings.
Parts of a contentious earlier order by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon were put on hold when that decision was made. Cannon had decided on September 5 that the records could not be utilized for “investigative purposes” until they were examined by a special master, an independent legal expert. The 11,000 records that weren’t marked as classified are currently being examined by Judge Raymond Dearie, who Cannon appointed to the position.
On Oct. 4, Trump’s legal team submitted an emergency request asking the special master to have access to more than 100 papers with classified labeling. Trump’s supporters asserted:
any limit on the comprehensive and transparent review of materials seized in the extraordinary raid of a president’s home erodes public confidence in our system of justice.
Trump had “no legitimate claims” to the documents, according to the Justice Department, which urged the Supreme Court to reject his appeal request in a 32-page report earlier this week. Trump loses despite having appointed three of the court’s nine justices, giving the court a 6-3 conservative majority.
