DOJ asks SCOTUS to block Trump request to halt document review

The Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to deny a request from former President Donald Trump that it halt the DOJ's review of classified documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this year.

Trump "certainly cannot establish the clear error required to justify the relief he seeks — particularly because he does not acknowledge, much less attempt to rebut, the court of appeals' conclusion that the district court's order was a serious and unwarranted intrusion on the Executive Branch's authority to control the use and distribution of extraordinarily sensitive government records," the DOJ wrote, per Fox News. "The application should be denied."

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon handed Trump a number of wins in earlier rulings, appointing a special master to independently review the documents the FBI took from his home and halting the DOJ's own investigation. An appeals court, however, overruled Cannon in the second matter and allowed the DOJ to continue reviewing the documents itself, which prompted Trump to seek aid from the high court.

Last week, Trump's lawyers petitioned the court for an emergency order restoring the special master's authority over 100 documents, which would in turn allow the former president to claim executive privilege over the documents or argue that he previously declassified them.

"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," the request read.

Trump announced that the FBI had raided his home in early August in pursuit of classified documents he may have removed from the White House. The raid has since prompted a bevy of whistleblower complaints against the bureau's alleged politicization as well as a great deal of congressional scrutiny.