Donald Trump made the decision to take Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the Department of Justice (DoJ). The DoJ went to the Eleventh Circuit (Atlanta Court of Appeals) to block independent expert Raymond Dearie and his review of documentation seized from the Mar-a-Lago raid.
After the judge in the case, Aileen Cannon, ruled in favor of the former president and appointed Dearie to an independent investigation of the case, the DoJ appealed this decision with a negative result. In the aftermath, the Biden Administration's Justice Department appealed to the Atlanta Court of Appeals to overturn Judge Cannon's court order to block the neutral review of the documents seized from Donald Trump's home.
"The important need to ensure impartiality."
In an explanatory memorandum, the former president's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to intervene in order to guarantee the independence of the case:
The unprecedented circumstances presented by this case—an investigation of the Forty-Fifth President of the United States by the administration of his political rival and successor—compelled the District Court to acknowledge the significant need for enhanced vigilance and to order the appointment of a Special Master to ensure fairness, transparency, and maintenance of the public trust.
In addition, Donald Trump's legal team requested that the block on the release of documentation to the independent expert Dearie be overturned:
That appointment order is simply not appealable on an interlocutory basis and was never before the Eleventh Circuit. Nonetheless, the Eleventh Circuit granted a stay of the Special Master Order, effectively compromising the integrity of the well-established policy against piecemeal appellate review and ignoring the District Court’s broad discretion without justification. This unwarranted stay should be vacated as it impairs substantially the ongoing, time-sensitive work of the Special Master.
DoJ Silence
For the time being, the Justice Department has not reacted to Trump's appeal to elevate the Mar-a-Lago case to the Supreme Court. Because the seized documentation is classified, the DoJ made the decision to appeal Judge Cannon's ruling to the Eleventh Circuit last week. They argued that the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago could be evidence of crimes, even those not marked as classified:
Therefore, the government cannot examine records that were commingled with the classification-marked materials, including records that may shed light on, for example, how the classification-marked materials were transferred to the plaintiff's residence, how they were stored, and who may have accessed them.
Extends the expert's review period
Judge Cannon granted Dearie additional days to review the documentation seized in the raid. The expert previously had until November 30 to study and review the case. However, the deadline has now been extended to December 16.
"This modest extension is necessary to allow adequate time for the special master's review and recommendations, given the circumstances that have evolved since the entry of the Appointment Order," Judge Cannon held.
