The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected former President Donald Trump's emergency request for a special teacher to intervene in the dispute over classified documents seized at his Mar-a-Lago mansion.
Trump had asked judges to overturn a federal appeals court and allow a special master to review some 100 documents marked classified, a move that could have opened the door for his legal team to review the records and argue they should be out. of the limits of prosecutors in a criminal case.
But in a brief order, the highest court denied the request.
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The decision does not affect the Justice Department's access to the same documents as part of a criminal investigation.
The more than 100 documents marked classified are just a small part of the 11,000 records seized by federal agents in August amid concerns that Trump had illegally withheld official White House records after he left office.
A three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit last month limited the special master's review to the much larger tranche of unclassified documents.
The judges, including two Trump appointees, sided with the Justice Department, which had argued there was no legal basis for the special master to conduct his own review of classified records.
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But Trump's lawyers said in their request to the Supreme Court that it was essential that the special master have access to the classified records to "determine whether documents bearing classification marks are in fact classified, and regardless of the classification, whether those records are personal or presidential records.”
Florida Judge Aileen Cannon later assigned a veteran Brooklyn judge, Raymond Dearie, to review the records and sort out those that might be protected by claims of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege.
The Justice Department objected to Dearie being able to review the classified records, prompting the 11th Circuit to side with the department.
With information from AP and
NBC News
.