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A flag in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington
Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP
Former US President Donald Trump has suffered a defeat in a legal dispute over the evaluation of confiscated secret documents.
The country's Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an emergency appeal by the ex-president.
Trump's lawyers asked the Supreme Court last week that a special auditor must have access to the classified documents.
The court gave no explanation as to why it denied the application.
In early August, the Federal Police FBI searched Trump's villa in the US state of Florida.
The FBI confiscated various classified documents, some with the highest level of secrecy.
Among the thousands of documents, according to the FBI, were around 100 documents marked as secret.
By keeping the documents in his private home after leaving office, Trump could have made himself liable to prosecution.
The result was legal wrangling by the authorities.
Trump's team was finally able to achieve success with the appointment of a neutral examiner.
However, an appeals court denied the special auditor access to the documents marked as secret.
Trump's lawyers argued in the Supreme Court that the 76-year-old had unlimited power to declassify documents while he was president.
Therefore, markings alone cannot determine whether a document is still classified or whether Trump has released it.
Therefore, the special investigator must be given access to intervene in cases of doubt.
The Supreme Court has now rejected it.
sak/dpa