Following several legal victories for former President Donald Trump in the case between him and the Department of Justice, the DOJ finally scored a win.
On Wednesday (September 21), the DOJ chalked its first win in its investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents when the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted its request to examine the classified documents it seized.
The DOJ had to approach the panel of judges after district judge Aileen Cannon ruled the DOJ would have to wait for the Special Master to complete the review.
The saga began on August 8, when the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and seized over 100 documents marked “classified.”
Trump, denying the implication he mishandled the documents, calling the search and seizure a witchhunt and mentioning that he had declassified the documents.
He also filed to have a third party — in this case, a Special Master — assess the document seized by the FBI. Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge, granted that request.
The DOJ filed a response to Trump’s request, arguing the wait could jeopardize the investigation. Cannon denied the DOJ’s request.
Although the focus has been placed on Cannon being a Trump-appointed Judge, two of the three judges on the appeals court were appointed by Trump.
Wednesday’s ruling means the Department of Justice doesn’t need to hand over documents marked “classified” to the Special Master.
In its ruling, the panel wrote that the former President “has not even attempted to show that he has a need to know the information contained in the classified documents,” adding that Trump hasn’t “established that the current administration has waived that requirement for these documents.”
