The Justice Department said it would appeal a federal judge’s decision to appoint a special master to sift through thousands of documents the FBI seized from Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Aug. 8, according to a Thursday court filing.
The notice of appeal arrived three days after Judge Aileen M. Cannon ruled in favor of Trump and said she would appoint a special master, slowing — at least temporarily — an investigation into the possible mishandling of extremely sensitive classified information, as well as possible hiding, tampering or destruction of government records.
The Justice Department wrote in a brief filing that it would be appealing the decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The notice paves the way for federal prosecutors to submit a detailed appeals brief to the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta.
In their filing Thursday, the government is asking for a stay on the judge’s order to halt its use of these classified records for its criminal investigation and that it turn over these documents to a special master for review. In other words, the Department of Justice wants to continue to use the documents in their investigation.
In its filing the government says the intelligence community has paused its security review because it is impossible to segregate it from the criminal probe. Additionally the government said it wants to know what was in the empty folders marked classified, which were also seized at Mar-a-Lago.
The Justice Department is asking that Cannon rule on both these matters by Thursday September 15th and failing that, it “intends to seek relief from the Eleventh Circuit.”
