US Justice Department to appeal against special master ruling in Donald Trump probe
- Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon had ordered prosecutors to pause reviewing the files recovered from Mar-a-Lago until an independent arbiter examines them
- The Justice Department has asked to be allowed to continue reviewing the records, saying it will file an appeal if no decision is reached in a week
The US Justice Department on Thursday asked a federal judge to let it continue reviewing records seized by the FBI from former president Donald Trump’s Florida home while it investigates whether classified documents were illegally removed from the White House.
Prosecutors in a court filing asked US District Judge Aileen Cannon not to allow an independent arbiter, called a “special master”, to review classified materials found in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach on August 8 during a court-approved search.
They also for the first time suggested there could be more classified records that were removed from the Trump White House that they have not yet located.
The prosecutors said that if the judge does not rule on their request by September 15, they would file an appeal to the Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, where six of the 11 active judges were appointed by Trump.
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FBI raids former US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home
“Without a stay, the government and the public will also suffer irreparable harm from the undue delay to the criminal investigation,” prosecutors wrote.