Clarence Thomas could hold the key to a huge win for Trump
Donald Trump on Tuesday petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in his classified documents case, and reverse a ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed the United States Department. of Justice access to the more than 100 classified and top secret documents federal agents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago residence and resort.
The lawsuit, which is a massive 240 pages, mostly made up of other documents including the now infamous FBI photo of the classified documents on the Mar-a-Lago rug, is addressed to “The Honorable Clarence Thomas, Circuit Justice for the Eleventh Circuit."
Trump has repeatedly praised Justice Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas for attending the January 6th attack on the Capitol and continuing to deny the results of the 2020 election.
Watch below to watch Trump’s comments on Ginni Thomas from a speech he made in Michigan on October 1st:
Clarence Thomas could hold the key to a huge win for Trump | RawStory.TVClarence Thomas could hold the key to a huge win for Trump | RawStory.TV
Legal experts say conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has unilateral authority to restore an outside reviewer's authority to review and potentially withhold the 100 documents found at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate from evidence in an ongoing inquiry into whether the former president illegally removed classified materials from the White House.
In a legal brief filed with the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday, Trump's attorneys requested the Court—specifically, Thomas—reconsider a prior ruling granting an appeal by the Department of Justice to exempt more than 100 documents marked as classified from review by the Trump-designated special master, Raymond Dearie.
If the Court rules in Trump's favor, Dearie would then be permitted to decide whether the documents are subject to executive privilege, thereby causing the Department of Justice to risk losing key pieces of evidence in its case against Trump.
Thomas—who has a longstanding legacy of activist opinions on the bench—could potentially make that decision for himself, possibly handing Trump a significant win and further challenging the already tenuous credibility of the nation's highest court.
"It's Thomas' decision to refer the application to the full Supreme Court," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek in an email. "This is a significant advantage to Trump because Thomas is considered by many to be the most conservative justice on the Court and the justice who will view Trump's request most favorably."