Trump asks the Supreme Court to intervene in dispute over records FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago

Trump's lawyers asked Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to issue an emergency order stopping DOJ from reviewing a set of 100 classified records.

• Trump's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to throw out part of an appeals court ruling in the Mar-a-Lago records case.
• They asked Justice Clarence Thomas to stop the DOJ from reviewing a set of 100 classified records.
• Trump's legal team described the appeals court ruling as "unwarranted" and unjustified.

Former President Donald Trump's legal team asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to intervene in a dispute over classified records the FBI seized in a search of his South Florida residence and private club, arguing that a federal appeals court had wrongly excluded them from a third-party arbiter's review. 

Trump's appeal to the high court marked the latest salvo in the former president's escalating legal battle with the Justice Department over the seizure of more than 11,000 records from Mar-a-Lago,  some of which were marked top-secret. The FBI's court-authorized search came as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the former president's handling of national security information and possible obstruction of justice.

In a court filing Tuesday, Trump's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the legal dispute and keep about 100 classified documents under the authority of an outside reviewer — known as a special master — appointed to sift out records that may be covered by attorney-client or executive privilege.

The request came two weeks after the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that the Justice Department should have access to the roughly 100 classified records, overturning Judge Aileen Cannon's decision to include those documents in the special master review and to halt their use in the criminal investigation.

Trump directed the request to Justice Clarence Thomas, who is assigned to oversee emergency requests arising out of the 11th Circuit. If granted, such an emergency order would make it easier for Trump to pursue arguments that the classified records are covered by a legal privilege and should not be used, at least for now, in the Justice Department's investigation.

Thomas instructed the Justice Department to file a response by October 11.

Cannon, a Trump appointee confirmed in 2020, has drawn criticism for rulings that legal experts have seen as showing unusual solicitude to the former president. The Justice Department appealed her decision to the 11th Circuit, where a three-judge panel rejected the possibility that the former president could have an "individual interest in or need for" the more than 100 classified records seized from Mar-a-Lago.

The 11th Circuit panel, consisting of two Trump appointees and an Obama appointee, also appeared to embrace the Justice Department's argument that any further delay in the review of the classified records could cause "irreparable harm" to the government and the public.

"It is self-evident that the public has a strong interest in ensuring that the storage of the classified records did not result in 'exceptionally grave damage to the national security,'" the 11th Circuit judges wrote.

Trump's legal team said in its Supreme Court filing Tuesday that the circuit court's ruling compromised "the integrity of the well-established policy against piecemeal appellate review" and ignored Cannon's "broad discretion without justification."

"This unwarranted stay should be vacated as it impairs substantially the ongoing, time-sensitive work of the Special Master," the filing said. "Moreover, any limit on the comprehensive and transparent review of materials seized in the extraordinary raid of a President's home erodes public confidence in our system of justice."

This story is developing. Check back for updates.