A federal appeals court decision has opened the way for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to halt the special master process and use the unclassified documents that were retrieved from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. This could potentially make it easier for the DOJ to continue its probe into whether there was any mishandling of the documents retrieved.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals court has issued a strong repudiation from both Trump and the lower court judge which had previously ruled in favor of Trump having a special master who would review all of the documents retrieved from his home.
This latest decision also allows the Department of Justice access to 22,000 pages of seized government records. This will allow investigators to go over all of the different documents retrieved in order to build a case.
The judge wrote that the law, in this case, is clear and that there is no rule that would block government investigations that included a search warrant, even if a former President is involved in the case.
This has been another victory from the DOJ as previously a three-judge panel had also ruled against the arguments made by Trump’s legal team which has been working to stop all the documents, even the unclassified records from being used in the department’s investigation.
The Department of Justice has also been clear about the fact that the Mar-a-Lago documents contain the bulk of the potential evidence that they can use to build a case under the Espionage Act. The DOJ has maintained that even the unclassified documents could be important for the case they are making. has made clear the classified records found at Mar-a-Lago represent the bulk of its potential case, which could include charges under the Espionage Act.
