Supreme Court denies Trump request in Mar-a-Lago classified documents case

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Thursday denied an emergency appeal from former President Donald Trump, who asked the nation's highest court to weigh in on a dispute over classified records seized at his Mar-a-Lago club in August.

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas referred the request to the court, which did not explain its reasoning for the denial in an unsigned order. There were no noted dissents.

Trump, who has fought the Department of Justice's review of those documents since August in court as well as on the campaign trail, asked the Supreme Court to allow an independent arbiter, or special master, to review about 100 classified documents.

The Justice Department pushed back on that request in a filing Tuesday, telling the Supreme Court that Trump – as a former president – had no claim on the documents.

The Supreme Court's decision is the latest step in a convoluted dispute playing out in four federal courts: the Supreme Court, the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, U.S. District Court in Florida and a special master’s court in Brooklyn. Though a loss for Trump, the decision will not end the litigation over the records.

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The legal wrangling stems from the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. Trump asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to authorize a special master to review the records seized to potentially withhold them from the Justice Department because of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.

Cannon assigned U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie as special master. She ordered the Justice Department to suspend its criminal investigation during the review. And she gave Dearie a Dec. 16 deadline to complete his review.

The Justice Department appealed part of her order to the 11th Circuit, arguing its criminal investigation of about 100 classified documents should continue and the documents shouldn’t be part of the special master’s review.

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit –  including two judges who were nominated by Trump – agreed with the department. Trump appealed to the Supreme Court.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court denies Trump request in Mar-a-Lago documents case