US court grants expedited appeal to Justice Department in Trump case
A U.S. appeals court has granted the Justice Department’s request to expedite its appeal of a lower court order appointing a special master to review records the FBI seized in the area of mar-a -lago, Florida, of former President Donald Trump.
The Wednesday, Oct. 5 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to expedite the government’s appeal is a setback for Trump, who had opposed the request.
Last week, the Justice Department asked the 11th Circuit to address concerns it still had with U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s appointment of Senior Judge Raymond Dearie, who is tasked with reviewing more than 11,000 files the FBI found inside Mar-a-Lago in order to delete anything privileged.
Judge Cannon’s order bars the Justice Department from relying on those records for its ongoing criminal investigation until Dearie’s review is complete.
In its filing, the Justice Department said the ban hindered its investigation and that it needed to be able to review unclassified records that may have been stored near classified records.
These unclassified documents, the department said, “could shed light” on how the documents were transferred or stored at the Mar-a-Lago estate, and who might have had access to them.
Trump faces a total of 19 lawsuits – about half of which allege improper conduct during his presidency.
Most of the cases fall under three themes: the financial misdeeds that made him more money; its role in the uprising of January 6, 2021; and his alleged interference in the 2020 election. Trump has denied wrongdoing in most of those cases. He filed motions to dismiss several of them and filed countersuits in some cases.
