U.S. Justice Dept asks appeals court to allow review of classified docs in Trump probe

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 asked the appeals court to rule on the request "as soon as practicable." 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.

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday asked a federal appeals court to let it resume reviewing classified materials seized in an FBI search of former President Donald Trump's Florida estate.

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 Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach 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 asked the appeals court to rule on the request "as soon as practicable." 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.

If Cannon's ruling stands, experts said, it would likely stall the Justice Department investigation involving the government records. The department is also looking into possible obstruction of the probe after it found evidence that records may have been removed or concealed from the FBI when it sent agents to Mar-a-Lago in June to try to recover all classified documents through a grand jury subpoena.

The Justice Department must now convince the Atlanta-based appeals court, with a conservative majority, to take its side in litigation over the records probe. Trump appointees make up six of the 11 active judges on the 11th Circuit.

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