The conflict between President Donald Trump and the DOJ over the papers they took during a raid on his house in August has recently seen fresh developments.
The DOJ was furious that Judge Aileen Cannon decided that the records had to be given to a special master, Judge Raymond Dearie, for inspection when we last left you in the drama, and this angered Cannon. Since the FBI has acknowledged that some of the items they seized included private documents they had no authority to obtain, he would decide what needed to be returned to Trump. The presidential privilege, attorney-client privilege, and personal data will be screened out of the information the FBI acquired by Judge Dearie.
However, the DOJ argued that roughly 100 papers should not be sent to the special master because they were secret and Trump had no right to them. It’s unclear how they are categorized. The 11 Circuit Court of Appeals, however, upheld the DOJ’s appeal and separated those papers from those that were to be given to the special master. Dearie is now solely reviewing the unclassified documents.
Clarence Thomas had the audacity to rule on ANOTHER matter involving Donald Trump without recusing himself.
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) October 5, 2022
Clarence Thomas needs to be impeached and disbarred.
The Trump campaign has requested that the Supreme Court reconsider the 11th Circuit’s ruling. They are only requesting access for the special master to review the data; they haven’t even asked the Court to stop the DOJ from looking at them yet. The Trump campaign said the 11 Circuit committed a procedural error.
However, Trump’s legal team argued in their initial submission to the Supreme Court that the case’s exceptional circumstances—an investigation into the 45th President of the United States by his political rival and successor—compelled the District Court to acknowledge the critical need for increased vigilance and to order the appointment of a Special Master to ensure fairness, transparency, and preservation of the public trust.
That appointment order was never before the Eleventh Circuit and is therefore not appealable on an interim basis. However, the Eleventh Circuit issued a stay of the Special Master Order, therefore undermining the integrity of the long-standing principle of piecemeal appellate review and disregarding the District Court’s vast authority without cause.
