September 8, 2022
UPDATE: Judge Cannon has ordered team Trump to file it’s written response to this filing by Monday.
The Department of Justice has filed paperwork indicating it will appeal the Florida judge’s decision to allow a special master to review the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago in early august. And in the meantime, DOJ wants the Florida judge to put a pause on her ruling.
The DOJ’s filing says Judge Cannon’s order –that not only allows the appointment of a special master but also orders the Department of Justice to stop using the documents for their criminal investigation — is flawed for many reasons but mostly DOJ says – it’s impossible to separate the criminal investigation from the ongoing intelligence assessment to determine how much damage was caused because these documents were not in the places where they should have been .
The DOJ is asking the judge to “stay” her order. Which means – put a pause on or suspend the order – while the Justice Department lawyers appeal to the 11th Circuit. And if she doesn’t, the DOJ argues the government and the public would suffer “irreparable harm.”
In the filing, the Justice Department says it believes that it will succeed on appeal, that a special master is not necessary and the special master should not look at these classified documents and that there is no executive privilege that the former President can assert based on Supreme Court precedent. And basically, the filing lays out in 21 pages why and how the DOJ says Judge Cannon got it all wrong.
Here’s the gamble. The appeals process could take longer than any document review by a special master. And there’s no guarantee that the government will win.
Department of Justice filing to Florida District court notice of appeal here.
