Trump asks Supreme Court to intervene in Mar-a-Lago FBI case

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed is currently overseeing the case.

By Ben Whedon

Published: October 4, 2022 3:51pm

Updated: October 4, 2022 4:37pm

Former President Donald Trump has reportedly asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the ongoing legal dispute between him and the Department of Justice over his alleged mishandling of classified materials that led to the FBI raid on his Florida estate.

Trump filed an emergency request with the court, seeking their intervention, according to a CNN report. Specifically, the former president wants the court to ensure that the court-appointed special master may review the more than 100 documents marked classified.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed, is currently overseeing the case. Thus far, she has appointed Raymond Dearie as special master to independently review the documents the FBI seized. Trump's legal team recommended Dearie and the DOJ concurred with the choice. She also barred the DOJ from continuing its investigation, though the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled her in that decision.

Dearie, meanwhile, has shown himself somewhat skeptical of Trump's various claims, including assertions that the FBI may have planted evidence at the estate and that he had previously declassified all of the documents the bureau seized. Trump has suggested on social media that the FBI planted evidence, but his legal team has not made that claim in court. Cannon subsequently curtailed efforts by Dearie to require the Trump team to provide evidence to back those assertions.

Under Trump, the Supreme Court assumed a decidedly more conservative composition following his appointment of three associate justices. Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett all assumed their positions on the bench due to Trump's nomination. Despite their appointments, the high court largely refused to intervene in many of the former president's legal disputes involving claims of election fraud.

Nonetheless, Supreme Court intervention will likely draw some scrutiny given the bevy of left-wing criticism hurled at Cannon given her status as a Trump appointee.