WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department on Friday moved to expedite its appeal of an order appointing a special master to review all of the records the FBI seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
In a court filing late on Friday, the Justice Department said its inability to access the non-classified documents held at Trump’s estate is still hampering significant aspects of its investigation that pertain to the classified records.
The Justice Department is asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to finish briefing in the case by Nov. 11, and hold any necessary hearing in the case as soon as possible.
Trump’s lawyers are opposing the request, the government said.
The Justice Department said an expedited schedule may allow the government, if it wins the appeal, “to more quickly resume its full investigation without restraints on its review and use of evidence seized pursuant to a lawful search warrant.”
The government attorneys added that, if the Atlanta-based appeals court rules in the Justice Department’s favor, it would end the litigation over materials seized in the search as well as the outside review of those documents.
That outside review, being conducted by Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, is currently set to end by Dec. 16.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Rami Ayyub, Jacqueline Wong and Jacqueline Thomsen in Washington; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler)
