On Friday (October 14), the DOJ approached the 11th Circuit Appeals Court to throw out the Special Master granted to former President Donald Trump by District Judge Aileen Cannon to review over 10,000 documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence by the FBI.
The Department of Justice dissected Cannon’s ruling in its filing while arguing Trump’s assertion didn’t provide proof that an appointment of a Special Master was necessary.
In its filing, the Department argues: “The uncontested record demonstrates that the search was conducted in full accordance with a judicially authorized warrant, and there has been no violation of Plaintiff’s rights — let alone a ‘callous disregard’ for them. Plaintiff has failed to meet his burden in establishing any need for the seized records — indeed, a substantial number of them are not even his—or in establishing any irreparable injury in their absence.”
Friday’s filing comes on the heels of several legal victories by the DOJ, including an earlier filing by the Department before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that ended in victory after the court allowed 100 classified documents to be siphoned off from the Special Master’s review.
In the opinion of that ruling, the 11th Circuit also suggested that Cannon had erred in the appointment of a Special Master, a statement that — more than likely — gave legs to the DOJ’s filing on Friday.
Many of the points the DOJ made in its filing reiterated its initial stance communicated to Cannon before she made her decision on whether or not to appoint a Special Master.
At the time, the DOJ argued that the former President couldn’t claim presidential records were his property, nor could he use executive privilege to block the functions of the current executive, a position it reiterated on Friday.
