Trump is claiming that the 11th Circuit appeals court lacked jurisdiction when it stayed Judge Aileen Cannon’s order preventing the DOJ from reviewing the classified material it seized from Mar-a-Lago while a special master reviewed all the material for executive or attorney-client privilege.
Politico explains what Trump is asking Justice Clarence Thomas, who oversees the 11th Circuit to do now:
Trump’s emergency application does not appear to ask the high court to revive the part of Cannon’s order that blocked the Justice Department and FBI from using the documents with classification markings in their ongoing criminal investigation.
Instead, Trump appears to be asking Thomas simply to return those documents potentially containing national-security secrets to the process being run by Special Master Raymond Dearie, a veteran district court judge in New York whom Cannon tapped for the role at Trump’s request.
If you're like me, you immediately blanched at the mention of an appeal to Mr. Ginni Thomas. But Politico says it’s likely Thomas will refer the matter to the full court “as is typical when disputes are high profile or when an application might gain traction with some justices.”
So what is Trump’s aim here, other than to delay and to look tough? MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin has a plausible theory:
