Donald Trump Defeated Again: Federal Appeals Court Halts Special Master Review Of Documents Seized From Mar-A-Lago

The three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Judge Aileen Cannon of Florida erred in appointing a special master to review documents seized on Aug. 8 by the FBI at former President Donald Trump’s estate Mar-a-Lago.

The special master, Judge Raymond J. Dearie, was appointed to review the more than 13,000 documents related to Trump’s time in office to determine what should be off-limits to investigators.

This is a major setback for Trump and good news for the Justice Department's investigation into his mishandling of government records.

In the opinion, the judges rebuked a central part of the argument by Trump’s legal team: that the Presidential Records Acts allowed Trump to categorize presidential documents as personal ones, creating the need for a special master to determine whether personal documents should be shielded from investigators, according to a Washington Post report.

The appeals court’s new ruling will go into effect in seven days, stated CNN, unless a party in the case successfully seeks an order pausing the ruling from going into effect while it is appealed.

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