- 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 reject an appeals court ruling that granted the Justice Department access to a set of about 100 classified government documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in August.
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 his South Flordia residence and private club, 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.
On Tuesday, Trump's lawyers asked Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to issue an emergency order giving a court-appointed special master — an outside arbiter tasked with going through the seized records and sifting out those that may be privileged — authority over the 100 classified documents.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee confirmed to the federal bench in 2020, had barred the Justice Department from reviewing the seized materials as part of their investigation until the special master had gone through them for privileged materials.
But the department quickly appealed Cannon's ruling to the 11th circuit, where a three-judge panel consisting of two Trump appointees and one Obama appointee reversed parts of Cannon's ruling and said the feds could use the set of 100 classified records for investigative purposes.
"Plaintiff has not even attempted to show that he has a need to know the information contained in the classified documents," the appeals court ruling said.
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.