Trump documents probe: US ready to appeal judge's hold

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is preparing to appeal a judge's decision granting the appointment of an independent arbiter to review records seized in a criminal investigation by the FBI from former President Donald Trump's Florida home.

Citing national security concerns and other factors, the department also asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to put on hold her directive prohibiting it from using the seized classified records for investigative purposes while it contests her ruling.

“Without a stay, the government and public also will suffer irreparable harm from the undue delay to the criminal investigation,” department lawyers said in a motion Thursday in which they announced their intent to appeal the order to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 21-page Justice Department filing lays bare the government's concern about the impact it believes will be caused by the judge's order, which temporarily halted core aspects of its criminal investigation, and its continued objections to the planned appointment of a “special master” to conduct an independent review of the records taken from Mar-a-Lago. Already, the department said, the intelligence community has paused its separate risk assessment that the judge had permitted to continue because of “uncertainty regarding the bounds of the Court’s order.”

The department gave the judge until next Thursday to stay her original order, saying it would otherwise file its appeal. Though such an appeal will almost certainly result in further delays to its underlying investigation, the department made clear throughout its motion its belief that it would be “injured” beyond repair if the judge's order was permitted to stand.

The Justice Department has been investigating for months what it says was...