Politico reports:

Donald Trump urged a federal judge Monday to keep in place her order that blocked the Justice Department from continuing its criminal investigation into the highly sensitive government records stashed in the basement of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The filing, a response to prosecutors’ warning that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s unorthodox directive— preventing FBI investigators from accessing the files seized in their Aug. 8 search — was harming national security, urges the Trump-appointed judge to stay the course.

“In what at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control, the Government wrongfully seeks to criminalize the possession by the 45th President of his own Presidential and personal records,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in a 21-page filing.

Trump directly praised Cannon last week, calling her initial ruling “courageous” and lashing out at the Justice Department for moving to appeal her order. DOJ has asked Cannon to temporarily set aside the portion of her order that blocked FBI access to about 100 records marked as classified — including some bearing labels denoting the most sensitive records the government possesses. [Continue reading…]

Politico reports:

A decision by a judge appointed by former President Donald Trump to temporarily halt a Justice Department investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate triggered an avalanche of criticism from across the legal spectrum, including attacks from conservatives who served in the Trump administration.

“It was deeply flawed in a number of ways,” former Attorney General William Barr said.

But Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling is just one of a flurry of controversial decisions by Trump judges in recent months that have been criticized as out of step with longstanding legal principles. [Continue reading…]