Court Halts Trump-Requested Special Master Review of Seized Mar-a-Lago Documents

A federal appeals court on Thursday ended the special master review of documents seized by the FBI from former President Donald Trump’s private residence in early August.

The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s order appointing the special master to look through the 11,000 documents taken from Mar-a-Lago, in order to determine what documents should not be handed over to investigators. Trump’s legal team had requested the special master, which was approved by a Trump-appointed judge in a widely panned ruling many legal observers did not expect to stand.

“The ruling removes a major obstacle to the Justice Department’s investigation into the mishandling of government records from Trump’s time in the White House,” noted CNN on the ruling, which the network described as a “major defeat” for Trump.

“The law is clear,” the appeals court wrote. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”

Watch the full clip above from CNN