By Steve Neavling
The Justice Department plans to appeal U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s order to allow a special master to review the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago last month if the judge doesn’t restore investigators’ access to the material.
On Monday, Cannon granted Trump’s request for a special master to review the documents, preventing investigators from reviewing the highly-sensitive material that was found at former President Trump’s house in Florida.
In a court filing, prosecutors said the order would cause “irreparable harm” to federal authorities’ efforts to protect national security, Politico reports.
“In order to assess the full scope of potential harms to national security resulting from the improper retention of the classified records, the government must assess the likelihood that improperly stored classified information may have been accessed by others and compromised,” Justice Department counterintelligence chief Jay Bratt said in the filing. “But that inquiry is a core aspect of the FBI’s criminal investigation.”
Bratt argued that Trump has no right to claim ownership of the classified documents.
“That authority falls upon the incumbent President, not on any former President, because it is the incumbent President who bears the responsibility to protect and defend the national security of the United States,” Bratt wrote.
In a 54-page court filing last week, federal prosecutors said the raid on Trump’s house in Florida came after he and his advisers refused to turn over highly classified documents.
