Defeat in Supreme Court in dispute over confidential documents

Donald Trump wanted to withhold secret documents seized from investigators. But now they can continue their work.

Former US President Donald Trump has faced defeat in the US Supreme Court over a dispute over official documents confiscated from his mansion. The Supreme Court in Washington rejected Trump’s request to intervene in the case, the court said. In particular, the question was whether a particular expert would have access to the nearly hundred secret documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s luxury property.

FBI investigators raided Mar-a-Lago on August 8 and seized thousands of documents. These are papers that Trump took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago at the end of his term, although outgoing presidents are required to hand over all official records to the National Archives. Trump then went to court and requested that a special expert (“Special Master”) review the documents and until then the documents be withdrawn from investigators’ access.

A federal judge in Florida agreed with Trump. The Justice Department then appealed. An appellate court later ordered that the documents classified as secret be withdrawn from the access of the special expert and that federal investigators continue to evaluate them. Trump, on the other hand, went to the Supreme Court last week with an urgent application. Responsible Constitutional Judge Clarence Thomas – one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative justices – now rejected the former president’s application. As usual in such cases, there was no justification for the decision.