1/ A federal appeals court ruled that the Justice Department could use the classified documents that were seized from Mar-a-Lago in its ongoing criminal investigation, blocking a lower court’s order that had limited the investigation into Trump’s handling of government materials. The three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – two of whom were nominated by Trump – disagreed with Trump’s rationale that the classified documents were his property, rather than the government’s, writing that Trump “has not even attempted to show that he has a need to know the information contained in the classified documents.” The court also disagreed with the rationale used by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to order a special master to review the classified documents and deny the DOJ’s request that they be exempted from it. Trump, meanwhile, told Fox News host Sean Hannity that “there doesn’t have to be a process [to declassify documents], as I understand it,” claiming that a president can declassify “even by thinking about it.” (CNN / New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / Wall Street Journal / Associated Press / CNBC)
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2022/09/22/day-611/