U.S. Justice Department appeals appointment of expert to review classified documents

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed Friday an appeal against the order of the federal judge of the Southern District of Florida Aileen Cannon for a special expert to review the documents seized from the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump and thus reobtain access to them.

In a request to a federal appeals court, the Justice Department has claimed that Judge Cannon’s decision to “prevent” its officials from reviewing the documents marked classified would “cause irreparable harm,” as reported by CNN.

“The criminal investigation itself is essential to the Government’s effort and to identify and mitigate potential national security risks,” the State Department has argued in its appeal.

Trump’s legal team requested that a person independent of the investigation review the documents to separate classified documents from unclassified ones, a request that the judge in charge of the case accepted, according to the cited network.

To this end, Trump proposed to appoint Raymond Dearie, a former federal judge in New York appointed as such by former President Ronald Reagan, as a special expert. The State Department, however, accepted this appointment after his proposals were rejected.

The decision to appoint an expert witness, however, delays, at least temporarily, a high-profile criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information at the former president’s Florida home and club, as well as the possible concealment, manipulation or destruction of government records.

Among the documents collected by FBI agents during the raid on the Mar-a-Lago residence last month, some confidential files have been found that would even describe a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities.