Florida judge dismisses Trump's Mar-a-Lago special master bid

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A South Florida federal judge officially dismissed former President Donald Trump’s request for a third party to examine documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago resort in August after an appeals court found she lacked jurisdiction in the case earlier this month.

US District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered the matter closed in a one-page order filed Monday — 11 days after a three-judge appeals panel ruled Cannon had erred in ordering Brooklyn federal judge Raymond Dearie to scrutinize papers taken from the Palm Beach residence Aug. 8 to determine whether they were covered by executive, attorney-client or other privileges.

Cannon’s Sept. 5 order appointing Dearie as special master had slowed the pace of the probe into whether Trump, 76, violated federal law governing the retention of sensitive records by removing presidential papers and other documents to Mar-a-Lago when he left the White House in January 2021.

As part of her order, Cannon told the DOJ to stop using the seized documents as part of its investigation into Trump until Dearie could complete his review.

However, the appeals court judges found that Cannon’s order was a “needless judicial intrusion” into the case.

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“It is indeed extraordinary for a warrant to be executed at the home of a former president — but not in a way that affects our legal analysis or otherwise gives the judiciary license to interfere in an ongoing investigation,” the panel found.

The judges also ruled that creating a “special exception” for Trump “would defy our Nation’s foundational principle that our law applies ‘to all, without regard to numbers, wealth, or rank.’”

The former president’s legal team, which opted not to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, contends that about 900 documents seized by the FBI are either Trump’s personal records or privileged and should be kept outside the scope of the DOJ’s investigation.

About 100 of those documents were marked “confidential,” “secret,” or “top secret.”

The investigation is being led by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed Nov. 18 by Attorney General Merrick Garland.  

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