The US Department of Justice requested an expedited ruling in its appeal of an order appointing a special master to examine all of the classified records the FBI seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
DOJ said in its court filing late on Friday that its inability to access the non-classified documents obtained during the raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago is hampering significant aspects of its investigation on the retention of government records that pertain to the classified documents.
The filing asks the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to order a filing of all papers in the case by Nov. 11, and, as soon as that briefing is completed, to hold any necessary hearing in the case.
An expedited schedule, as the Justice Department argues, may allow the government to resume its full investigation more quickly and without restraints and to use the evidence seized pursuant to a lawful search warrant if it wins the appeal.
If it greenlights DOJ’s request, the Atlanta-based appeals court would end the litigation over the seized materials as well as the outside review of those documents which is being conducted by special master Senior US District Judge Raymond Dearie and is set to end by Dec. 16.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has previously lifted parts of the US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling that had prevented the DOJ from relying on the seized classified materials, such as bringing up the content of the sensitive records in presenting charges to a grand jury or in witness interviews.
It has also blocked the special master Dearie from accessing the classified records as part of his proceedings.
After Trump’s lawyers argued that the requirement was outside the scope of Dearie’s authority, Judge Cannon rejected on Thursday Dearie’s instruction that Trump verifies the list of documents taken from the property.
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