Former US President Donald Trump has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court for confidential documents seized from his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. His lawyers have asked the highest court in the United States to overturn the decision of a lower court.
Trump and his team want to prevent the US Department of Justice from investigating confidential documents that have been seized from him. “The US administration is trying to criminalize a document handling dispute,” Trump’s lawyers said in their motion. Trump hopes to stop the US Department of Justice from investigating the seized documents.
In late September, the United States Department of Justice won a big victory in a court that ruled that investigators could continue to use some of the seized documents for their work. This overturned the decision of a Florida court. He had prohibited investigators from using the confidential documents as long as the independent arbiter (special master) appointed in the case, Raymond Drearie, was still examining the documents. That arbiter was appointed at Trump’s request, critics say for delaying justice investigations.
The criminal investigation will include whether confidential documents have been withheld and whether an attempt has been made to thwart a federal investigation. Both crimes are punishable. According to Trump, he has ensured that the documents in question are no longer secret during his presidency, but according to the court no evidence has been found.
In early August, the FBI raided Trump’s estate in Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Several confidential documents dating back to the time of the Trump presidency have been seized, including documents with the highest state of secrecy. By law, that material should have been delivered to the National Archives soon after Trump’s term expired. Trump and his lawyers have repeatedly claimed that FBI agents have deposited incriminating evidence themselves in Mar-a-Lago, but even this claim has not been substantiated so far.
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