Supreme Court Turns Down Trump's Request on Files

Justices stay out of fight over criminal investigation of former president
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 13, 2022 2:51 PM CDT
Supreme Court Rejects Trump Request on Seized Documents
Former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, shown in 2018, which FBI agents searched in August.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Update: This file has been updated with the context of the Supreme Court's earlier ruling allowing a House committee access to certain White House documents.
Former President Trump failed Thursday in his attempt to pull the Supreme Court into the legal fight over classified documents seized by the FBI at his Florida home. The court rejected Trump's emergency request to overturn a federal appeals court decision and have a special master review about 100 of the documents, CNN reports. Trump's lawyers argued to have all 11,000-plus documents taken at Mar-a-Lago in August reviewed to determine if any were subject to attorney-client or executive privilege, possibly keeping them from federal criminal investigators, per the Washington Post.

The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to let the appeals court ruling stand and keep the documents marked classified away from the special master. A one-sentence, unsigned statement from the Supreme Court gave no reason for the rejection of the case. No breakdown was released, which usually is the case, but the outcome means Trump did not have as many as five votes on the court, per the Hill. Thursday's announcement marks the second time this year Supreme Court decisions could be interpreted as signaling Trump can expect fewer protections now that he's out of office, Vox points out. In January, the court declined to prevent the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol from having certain Trump White House documents. (More US Supreme Court stories.)

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