The U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal appeals court Friday to end a special third-party review of documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida, arguing that a district court should not have appointed a “special master” in the case.
In a petition to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Justice Department prosecutors argued that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon exceeded her authority when she paused a criminal investigation to allow the special master to review more than 11,000 seized records.
“It follows that the district court erred in requiring the government to submit any of the seized materials for the special-master review process,” prosecutors said in the court papers.
The Justice Department is investigating whether Trump broke the law by taking government records, including about 100 classified documents, to his Florida estate after leaving office in January 2021.
The department also is looking into whether Trump or his team obstructed justice when the FBI sent agents to search his home and has warned that more classified documents may still be missing.
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