Trump's legal team urges court to reject DOJ's request for partial stay of special master ruling

The new filing calls the DOJ's investigation "both unprecedented and misguided."

Former President Donald Trump's legal team is urging the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to reject the Justice Department's request for a partial stay of a district judge's ruling that has effectively paused the government's investigation into Trump's potential mishandling of classified records after leaving office.

The DOJ had filed a motion Friday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a partial stay of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's order requiring a special master to review items with classification markings seized at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last month.

The government has said Trump was improperly keeping highly classified and sensitive materials that he took with him after leaving the White House. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Tuesday's new filing from Trump's attorneys calls the DOJ's investigation into Trump "both unprecedented and misguided," and repeats their claim that it is merely "a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control." The Justice Department has said that characterization ignores the fact that documents possibly containing some of the nation's highest protected secrets were found inside Trump's private club in apparent defiance of a grand jury subpoena.

"The District Court did not err in temporarily enjoining the Government's review and use of records bearing classification markings for criminal investigative purposes because the merits support that narrowly tailored injunction," Trump's lawyers argue in the new filing.