‘IRREPARABLY INJURED’

DOJ Appeals Court-Ordered Special Master Review for Mar-a-Lago Docs

A Trump-appointed judge granted the request, which could allow a special master to shield records protected by attorney-client or executive privilege.

The Department of Justice is appealing a court-ordered special master review of the trove of documents seized by federal agents from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in early August. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, had on Monday granted the request by Trump’s lawyers to have an independent third party review the documents. She also ordered a halt to the Justice Department’s review of the materials, saying that Trump faced “an unquantifiable potential harm” if any material were to be leaked. In a separate court filing made at the same time as the three-page notice of appeal on Thursday, the Justice Department asked Cannon to partially stay her order while the appeal is pending. Prosecutors wrote that “the government and the public are irreparably injured when a criminal investigation of matters involving risks to national security is enjoined.” They wrote that a special master could be appointed, but asked that the individual be blocked from reviewing classified documents, given that posed “the most immediate and serious harms to the government and the public.”