Justice Dept. asks Supreme Court to deny Trump’s Mar-a-Lago appeal

It’s the latest turn in the department’s high-stakes investigation to determine whether the former president or his advisers mishandled national security secrets, or hid or destroyed government records. Prosecutors have accused Trump’s team of failing to turn over highly sensitive government documents when asked, and over the summer took the extraordinary step of executing a search warrant at his home and private club in South Florida.

Trump has said he is being treated unfairly by the Justice Department. Last week his legal team made a technical and narrow petition to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to reconsider a portion of an appeals court ruling that granted the Justice Department’s request to keep the classified documents separate from a review of seized material being conducted by the outside expert, known as a special master.

FBI agents seized more than 11,000 documents from Trump’s Florida residence and private club, including 103 with a variety of classification markings. The Washington Post has reported previously that authorities recovered one document that described a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities.

The former president’s lawyers have argued that the appeals court lacked authority to prohibit the special master from reviewing the classified material. They asked the Supreme Court to allow the outside expert to examine those sensitive government documents.

The status of key investigations involving Donald Trump

The government’s response said Trump’s emergency request should fail because he has not shown how he would be harmed without the Supreme Court’s intervention or that the appeals court order was wrong.

“Because applicant has no plausible claims of ownership of or privilege in the documents bearing classification markings, he will suffer no harm at all from a temporary stay of the special master’s review of those materials while the government’s appeal proceeds,” wrote Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar in Tuesday’s response to the Supreme Court. “And applicant further undermined any claim that he is suffering irreparable injury from the stay by opposing the government’s motion to expedite the underlying appeal and urging that oral argument be deferred until ‘January 2023 or later.’ ”

In its September ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit also said the Justice Department could immediately resume using the classified documents in its criminal investigation — something a lower court had prohibited until the special master completed his review. While Trump’s lawyers requested that the Supreme Court allow the classified documents to be reviewed, they did not ask the justices to prohibit the government from using those…