The Justice Department has fired back with a filing in the US Circuit Courts of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to stay the lower court’s decision barring the federal agency from accessing classified documents that have been recovered Donald Trump’s Residence Mar-a-Lago.

For the uninitiated, Judge Aileen cannon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, in a Sept. 5 ruling, granted Trump’s request to appoint a special master and also prohibited the DOJ from reviewing and using the seized materials for investigative purposes.

The federal authority then fought for a partial lifting of the suspension and applied for an exemption for around 100 classified documents. However, Cannon denied the request.

In the Sept. 16 court filing, the DOJ asked the Court of Appeals to stay the district court’s order permitting the review and use of records with classified markers for criminal investigative purposes. It also requested that the classified documents not be subjected to the Special Master Review process.

Earlier this week, Chief Justice Raymond Dearie was selected as an independent arbitrator to review the Mar-a-Lago documents.

See also: Donald Trump once promised Jordan’s King Abdulla II the West Bank, according to a new book

“The court’s order hampers this investigation and exposes the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) to a Damoclean threat of contempt if the court later disagrees with how investigators disaggregated their previously integrated criminal justice and national security activities,” he said the federal agency in the latest filing.

“The government and the public will suffer irreparable harm without delay, and the United States respectfully requests that the court honor this request as soon as possible,” the DOJ added.

The department may have a big task ahead, however, as the Atlanta-based Court of Appeals has a Conservative majority, with six of the 11 active justices being Trump-appointed, according to Reuters.

Photo: Courtesy of Gage Skidmore on Flickr