U.S. Justice Department appeals court ruling on seized Trump documents

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday appealed a court ruling blocking it from reviewing classified materials seized in an FBI search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. In the filing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the Justice Department said the circuit court should halt part of the lower court decision that prevents prosecutors from relying on the classified documents in their criminal investigation into the retention of government records at Trump's Palm Beach residence after his presidency ended.

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday appealed a court ruling blocking it from reviewing classified materials seized in an FBI search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.

In the filing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the Justice Department said the circuit court should halt part of the lower court decision that prevents prosecutors from relying on the classified documents in their criminal investigation into the retention of government records at Trump's Palm Beach residence after his presidency ended. The department also asked that a third party appointed to examine all the records taken in the federal raid at Trump's part, Senior U.S. Judge Raymond Dearie, not be permitted to review the classified materials.

The government's motion comes after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday rejected the same requests from the Justice Department. There were roughly 100 classified documents among the 11,000 records gathered in the FBI's court-approved Aug. 8 search at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort.

Cannon, whom Trump appointed to the bench in 2020, had said she would tell Dearie, who is filling the role of a "special master" in the case, to prioritize the classified records in his review, which she set a Nov. 30 deadline to complete.

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