The Department of Justice requested that a federal appeals court review an order appointing a special master to examine documents taken by the FBI from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property as soon as possible late last month.
On Monday, Trump’s legal team asked the federal appeals court in Atlanta to deny DOJ’s efforts to expedite the case, “arguing Trump’s team is already crunched for time dealing with the special master review and district court action.
That includes going over the 11,000 documents, totaling about 200,000 pages, to determine if they’re protected by attorney-client or executive privilege and litigating any fights over those claims, they said,” according to Bloomberg.
“President Trump disagrees with and objects to the government’s distorted and argumentative presentation of facts concerning the unprecedented raid of his home, its conduct in these proceedings, and the procedural history of this case,” according to the filing.
However, the court issued the DOJ’s request, putting its entire appeal of the special master order on an “expedited track,” as Bloomberg’s Zoe Tillman notes.
The 11th Circuit explained on Wednesday the briefing schedule, which had been planned through mid-December, will now be accelerated to end by mid-November.
On Monday, Trump’s legal team rejected the Justice Department’s request to hasten its appeal.
“President Trump will be prejudiced if this appeal is expedited,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in a court filing Monday, pointing to a disparity in the proposed time for each party to file a brief, adding that the “extraordinary circumstances” presented by an investigation of a former president by “his political rival” would “countenance against any rush to judgment.”
The new development comes after Trump’s lawyers requested the Supreme Court to get involved in a more specific issue on Tuesday, pleading with it to lift the 11th Circuit’s stay and permit the special master to once again review a collection of around 100 documents with classified markings.
