A federal appeals court gave a boost to the criminal investigation into whether the records were mishandled or compromised by ruling that the Justice Department can resume reviewing them.
The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request by federal prosecutors to block the stay on the case.
The appeals court agreed to reverse part of the lower court's order that required the government to hand over records with classification markings.
The decision is limited in nature, as the Justice Department only asked for a partial stay pending appeal, and the panel couldn't decide on the merits of the case.
The appeals court only considers the traditional equitable considerations, which include whether the United States has shown a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits, harm each party might suffer from a stay, and where the public interest lies.
Three judges made the decision, two of which were appointees of Trump and one of which was a Democrat.
The US Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority and three justices who were appointed by Trump.
Trump's lawyers asked the court to keep the stay in place and allow them to review the seized materials under the supervision of the special master.
The Justice Department didn't have a comment immediately. Attorneys for Trump weren't available for comment.
More than 11,000 documents were seized by the FBI during a search of Donald Trump's home in Palm Beach.
There is a federal investigation into whether Trump illegally removed documents from the White House when he left office in January 2021.
Cannon appointed Dearie to serve as the special master at the request of the president. The appointment of a special master was objected to by the justice department.
Cannon asked Dearie to review all of the materials, including classified ones, to make sure they are not subject to attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.
One of his defenses is that he didn't declassify the records.
During a hearing before Dearie on Tuesday, his lawyers refused to give him proof that Trump had declassified any records.
Cannon's ruling from top to bottom and many of Trump's legal arguments were harshly rebuked by the appeals court.
The judges wrote that Trump has not tried to show that he needs to know the information. He hasn't found out that the current administration doesn't require that for these documents.
The Justice Department objected to Cannon's demand that Dearie review the seized records for documents possibly covered by executive privilege because Trump is a former president.
While it voiced disagreement, however, the Justice Department did not appeal that portion of Cannon's order.
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