The DOJ should not be allowed to hold on to 100 classified documents it seized at Mar-A-Lago and not be allowed to give them to a third party, according to a court filing.
The Mar-a-Lago resort is owned by former President Donald Trump.
The DOJ requested that the judge allow them to hold on to a small number of classified documents in order to partially stop her order granting a special master to review White House documents.
The judge's ruling was a sensible preliminary step towards restoring order from chaos and Trump has an absolute right of access to any presidential records.
Not all of the documents that were seized with classification markings may actually be classified according to the ex-president's lawyers.
Legal experts have previously objected to the idea that Trump could have declassified documents without following proper procedures.
Cannon should not side with the DOJ because it has not shown that a ruling against the government would harm its investigation, and that Cannon blocking investigators from reviewing the documents would also harm an ongoing review of what national security risk the materials are.
A request for comment from the Justice Department has not been replied to.
Cannon was asked to rule on the DOJ's request for the classified documents to be kept from the special master. The government will appeal the case if the judge does not grant the request by that time.
The master will be who. The Justice Department and Trump's attorneys made two suggestions for potential special masters, but the choice will be up to Cannon. The DOJ wants the review to be done by October 17 but the Trump team thinks the review could take 90 days and wants the two sides to split costs.
Cannon was asked by Trump to appoint a special master two weeks after federal investigators searched Mar-A-Lago and seized more than 11,000 White House documents, including classified materials. According to court documents, the ex-president stored classified documents in unauthorized locations and appeared to obstruct the government's investigation by withholding materials despite a subpoena. Cannon ordered a special master to review the seized documents even though the DOJ argued that appointing a special master wouldn't be necessary and wouldn't delay the government's review. Legal experts described her ruling to the New York Times as "deeply problematic," "radical," "laughably bad" and "genuinely unprecedented." The DOJ requested that some materials be kept out of the public eye.
The DOJ wants the court to stop the special master from reviewing the classified documents.
The judge gave the special master to review the documents.
Competing candidates were submitted for the special master.
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