Oct. 13 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court gave a win to the Department of Justice on Thursday, rejecting former President Donald Trump's request to have a special master review classified papers.
In a brief unsigned order, the justices denied Trump's request.
Trump had asked the high court to intervene earlier this month and overturn a decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that barred the special master, U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, from reviewing more than 100 documents marked classified.
The dispute is part of the FBI's seizure of more than 11,000 documents, including hundreds that were marked with some form of classification.
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Trump has argued that it is his right as a former president to hold some of the documents under executive privilege. The Justice Department claims any documents created while Trump served in office are not his personal property and are presidential records to be held by the National Archives.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida granted Trump's request for a special master and appointed Dearie to review the documents in response to the ex-president's suggestion that the FBI planted evidence during its search of his Florida estate in August.
Trump's lawyers, however, never alleged planted documents in court filings.
Cannon also rejected a request from the Justice Department to lift an injunction preventing investigators from reviewing about 100 documents marked classified until the review was completed.
While Cannon argued some of the documents seized "undisputedly constitute personal property and privileged materials," the 11th Circuit overturned her ruling a week later, allowing the Justice Department to proceed with its review. The appeals court ruled that Cannon "erred" in including the classified records.
"Plaintiff has not even attempted to show that he has a need to know the information contained in the classified documents. Nor has he established that the current administration has waived that requirement for these documents," the three appellate court judges wrote.
