Status: 05.10.2022 03:18 am
The legal hassle over confiscated documents has reached a new level of escalation. After losing in court, ex-President Trump is now turning to the country’s Supreme Court. There he could appoint several judges.
Former US President Donald Trump has turned to the country’s Supreme Court in a dispute over the evaluation of confiscated secret documents.
Trump’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s decision. The core question is who has access to around 100 confiscated secret documents. The US government is trying to criminalize a dispute over document management, the attorneys wrote in their filing.
FBI seized thousands of documents
Trump’s step is preceded by a legal tug of war through the authorities. In early August, the Federal Police FBI searched Trump’s villa in the US state of Florida. The FBI confiscated various classified documents, some with the highest level of secrecy.
According to the law, this material should have been given to the National Archives. Among the thousands of documents, according to the FBI, were around 100 documents marked as secret.
Justice Department achieves success in court
At the end of September, the US Department of Justice had achieved an important success in court. The Court of Appeal ruled that investigators may continue to use some of the confiscated documents for their work. It overturned the decision of a Florida court. This initially prohibited the investigators from using the documents marked as secret as long as the neutral examiner employed in the case, Raymond Dearie, deals with the documents.
As part of the decision of the court of appeal, the special auditor was denied access to the documents marked as secret. Trump’s attorneys have now petitioned the Supreme Court to allow Examiner Dearie to examine the documents.
They argue that during his tenure as President, Trump had full authority to declassify documents. Therefore, markings alone cannot determine whether a document is still classified or whether Trump has released it. Therefore, the special investigator must be able to access and examine these questions.