HomeUSAAppeals court vacates Mar-a-Lago special master order

Appeals court vacates Mar-a-Lago special master order

A member of the Secret Service is seen in front of the home of former President Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on August 9, 2022.

Giorgio Viera | AFP | Getty Images

A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned a judge’s decision to appoint a special watchdog to review documents seized by the FBI from the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump as part of a criminal investigation.

“This appeal requires us to consider whether the district court had jurisdiction to block the United States from using lawfully seized records in a criminal investigation,” a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit wrote in its ruling.

“The answer is no,” the panel wrote. All three judges on the panel were appointed by Republican presidents. Trump appointed Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher, while Chief Judge Bill Pryor was appointed by George W. Bush.

The ruling came in favor of an appeal by the Department of Justice of the appointment of the watchdog, known as a special master, Judge Aileen Cannon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Cannon was named to the bench by Trump.

The DOJ said Cannon’s appointment of the special master, which Trump had sought, unjustifiably delayed the department from using the seized documents as part of that probe until they were cleared.

Trump is being investigated by the DOJ for his removal of government documents from the White House and their shipment to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

By law, those documents belong to the federal government. A number of the documents were classified.

The August 8 raid at Mar-a-Lago was conducted after another judge signed a search warrant, finding that there was probable cause that FBI agents would find evidence of a crime at the property.

The 11th Circuit panel’s ruling Thursday said Cannon was wrong to allow an outside party to delay the DOJ’s probe.

“The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant,” the panel wrote.

“Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so,” the panel wrote.

“Either approach would be a radical reordering of our case law limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations. And both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations. Accordingly, we agree with the government that the district court improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction, and that dismissal of the entire proceeding is required.”

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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