Appeals court orders end to special master review process in Trump documents case - CBS News

Washington – A three-judge federal appeals court panel in Atlanta ruled that the special master review process that oversaw the Justice Department's use of non-classified evidence collected earlier this year at Donald Trump's Florida residence must end.

Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit reversed the decision of Judge Aileen Cannon, a federal judge from Florida who granted Trump's request for the review and appointed semi-retired federal Judge Raymond Dearie of New York as an independent arbiter, or special master, to sift through the documents for any that may be subject to claims of privilege by the former president. .

A separate appeals court decision from September permitted the Justice Department to use more than 100 documents with classified markings it seized for its investigation into Trump's alleged mishandling of sensitive documents, and Thursday's subsequent decision grants the government full access to the evidentiary record. .

The opinion from the 11th Circuit wipes away Cannon's order appointing the special master and sends the case back to the lower court with instructions for it to be dismissed.

Trump first asked Cannon to appoint a special master to review the seized documents in late August, two weeks after the FBI conducted the search of his office and storage room at Mar-a-Lago

"It is simply untenable to conclude any president may be subject to a criminal charge for exercising the unfettered rights set forth in the PRA to categorize certain documents as 'personal' during that president's term of office," they told the 11th Circuit in filings

His legal team has said the documents he brought to Mar-a-Lago must be considered "presumptively privileged" by the courts and shielded from the criminal investigation until the independent review concludes. 

Throughout the appeal, prosecutors remained opposed to Trump's reading of the law, writing in part that he cannot assert executive privilege to preclude review of executive branch documents by the executive branch itself.  The Justice Department also argued that Cannon overstepped when she issued her September injunction barring the FBI from using the seized material for investigative purposes

A three-judge panel heard oral arguments in the dispute last week, during which they appeared open to the Justice Department's position that Cannon wrongly appointed the special master to review the seized documents and erred when she issued her injunction

Thursday's ruling comes after Attorney General Merrick Garland last month appointed a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department's investigation into Trump's handling of government records, as well as the department's probe into his efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election