Former President Donald Trump has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court this week over classified documents taken from his Florida home during an FBI raid in August. Trump has also filed a multi-million-dollar defamation lawsuit against CNN.
On Tuesday, Trump's legal team asked the nation's high court to allow a special master to look over 100 classified documents that were taken together with thousands of other documents from the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home on August 8.
According to CBN News, Trump's lawyers stressed that it was important for the special master to have access to the documents to "determine whether documents bearing classification markings are in fact classified, and regardless of classification, whether those records are personal records or Presidential records."
"Since President Trump had absolute authority over classification decisions during his Presidency, the current status of any disputed document cannot possibly be determined solely by reference to the markings on that document," the team said in the application.
Trump's team stressed that an independent review guarantees a "transparent process that provides much-needed oversight." If the review was not granted, "the unchallenged views of the current Justice Department would supersede the established authority of the Chief Executive," the attorneys added.
The application follows a lower court's decision last month, in which a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta denied the Trump team's request to have the special master examine the classified documents, only granting him access to non-classified documents.
On Monday, Trump filed a $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN, claiming the news outlet defamed him in order to hamper his efforts of running for office again. The lawsuit highlights how often CNN called Trump's claim of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election "The Big Lie," a phrase with Nazi connotations.
The suit points out that CNN has used "The Big Lie" over 7,700 times since 2021.
"It is intended to aggravate, scare and trigger people," Trump said.
Trump also announced that he will file similar lawsuits against other news organizations and would likely take "appropriate action" against the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Related:
Donald Trump Files Lawsuit against DOJ over Mar-a-Lago Raid
FBI Searches Trump's Mar-a-Lago Home as Part of Records Probe
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Drew Angerer/Staff
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
