A federal appeals court ordered an end to the special master review of records seized from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.
The decision from the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest blow to the former president's case. Prosecutors are looking into the possibility that Trump or anyone else mishandled government records, or engaged in obstruction of justice.
It is clear. The court said that they can't write a rule that would allow any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the warrant is executed. We can't write a rule that would allow only former presidents to do it. The caselaw would be changed to limit the federal courts involvement in criminal investigations.
No one member of the three-judge panel claimed to be the author of the decision. Two judges who were nominated by Trump were on the panel, along with a Bush-appointed judge.
The work of the special master was temporarily halted by the latest order. He could ask the US Supreme Court to intervene in the case or petition the full 11th Circuit.
The special master, US District Senior Judge Raymond Dearie, was given the ruling by the 11th Circuit. Dearie is vetting a master log of disputed documents and is going to issue a report to the judge with recommendations. During a recent hearing, a Trump lawyer stated that the universe of disagreements had narrowed to around 900 documents. Cannon will make a decision regarding Dearie's conclusions.
There is a document fight going on in Mar-a-Lago.
Several dozen boxes of documents and other items were seized from Mar-a-Lago in August under a court-approved search warrant, but Trump was able to block the government from seeing them. In September, Cannon granted Trump's request to bring in an outside special master.
Cannon's ruling allowed Trump to press claims that at least some documents should be kept out of the Justice Department's hands because they were protected by legal privileges. His attacks on the investigation were political.
Trump was given a number of losses on appeal. The 11th Circuit sided with the Justice Department when it came to a small group of records. Grant and Brasher were part of the decision to exclude those records from the special master review. The Supreme Court turned down Trump's request.
Cannon didn't have the authority to entertain Trump's request for a special master and to enter an injunction barring the use of documents under review according to the Justice Department. Government lawyers argued that Trump's situation didn't justify a judge stepping in because courts are supposed to limit their involvement with criminal investigations.
John L. is the new special counsel for government lawyers. The lack of access to the bulk of the seized evidence made it hard to build a case.
The judges questioned Trump attorney James Trusty if there was anything unusual about the Mar-a-Lago search compared to a typical criminal investigation. Trusty insisted that the political context was relevant, even though they weren't seeking "special treatment"
The court had to be concerned about setting precedent that would allow any target of a criminal investigation to go into court and have a judge interfere with the work of the executive branch, according to the judge.
(Updated with more from court ruling.)
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