A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that a judge’s order appointing a special master to review documents seized at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort should be thrown out.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit lifts previous restrictions on the Justice Department’s examination of classified documents and other records and will allow investigators to proceed with the investigation more quickly.
The panel said U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order in September to appoint an arbitrator and prevent the government from using a trove of documents she recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Aug. 8 was incorrect.
“The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that would allow any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant,» the panel wrote. «Accordingly, we agree with the government that the district court improperly exercised equal jurisdiction and that the dismissal of the entire proceeding is required.»
In September, Cannon appointed Raymond J. Dearie, a senior federal district judge for the Eastern District of New York, to review all seized materials.