Timing remains unclear, but the renewed push reflects heightened pressure inside the Trump DOJ to reopen matters the president has repeatedly called out as examples of a politicized “deep state.”
The development carries particular irony. In the earlier Mar-a-Lago documents case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, the Justice Department and FBI insisted that any document they labeled “classified” was off-limits to judicial review or disclosure to the defendant. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, ruling that classification status is whatever the executive branch’s national-security apparatus says it is.
That precedent now applies with full force to Comey’s memos. If the current DOJ and intelligence community deem the documents classified — because they memorialize the
