- A US appeals court overturned Trump’s appointment of an independent arbitrator over the seized documents.
- Trump faces a federal criminal investigation into his handling of sensitive government records.
- FBI agents seized about 11,000 records during the search, including about 100 that were marked as classified.
WASHINGTON: A US appeals court dealt a blow to Donald Trump on Thursday, overturning the judge’s appointment of an independent arbitrator to examine documents seized by the FBI from his Florida home. gave Records will be used in the criminal investigation of the former president.
The Atlanta-based 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Justice Department challenging a September ruling by Florida-based U.S. District Judge Ellen Cannon that a “special master” to review the records. should be named in order to decide whether some should be retained. The investigator
A three-judge 11th Circuit panel said Cannon lacked authority to grant the permit. Trump’s request He filed for a special master’s order in a lawsuit filed by FBI agents two weeks after court approval in August. Find 8 at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. It also overturned Cannon’s decision to block investigators from accessing most records pending review and threw out Trump’s suit.
FBI agents seized about 11,000 records during the search, including about 100 that were marked as classified.
The 11th Circuit held that while the warrant to search the former president’s property was “extraordinary,” it did not provide “judicial license to interfere with an ongoing investigation.” The court also said that Trump had not shown that the search of his property constituted a “callous disregard” for his constitutional rights, one of the few reasons a court could interfere in an ongoing investigation. .
“The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to stop a government investigation after the warrant is executed,” the panel wrote. “Nor can we write a rule that only allows former presidents to do that.”
The 11th Circuit panel consisted of Judge William Pryor, appointed by Republican former President George W. Bush, as well as two of Trump’s own appointees, Andrew Brasher and Bert Grant.
Trump is likely to appeal the 11th Circuit’s action to the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court. The 11th Circuit said its order would not take effect for seven days, during which time Trump could try to challenge it.
A Trump spokesman called the decision “purely procedural and purely jurisdictional” and said it did not address the merits of the case.
“President Donald J. Trump will continue to fight against the ‘weaponized Department of Justice’ while standing up for America and Americans,” the spokesperson added.
The news came as top Justice Department officials gathered in Washington for the annual holiday celebration. He learned that he had won the case from the reporters who were there.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.
Three days after Trump announced he would run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Nov. 18 appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee the criminal investigation and documents related to Trump.
Cannon, who Trump appointed to his judgeship, nominated another federal judge, Raymond Derry, to consider whether anyone should be removed from the criminal investigation.
Cannon also barred prosecutors from using the documents sought as part of their criminal investigation until the conclusion of Derry’s review, although a separate 11th Circuit panel later granted the government access to those materials. which are marked as classified.
Trump’s lawyers had asked Derry to find that certain documents are protected by executive privilege, a legal doctrine that allows the president to keep certain communications secret or meet the definition of “personal” documents that are classified. Must be kept private. Trump’s lawyers argued that he designated some of the records as his personal papers, a claim that the Justice Department disputed.