Former President Donald Trump indicated he doesn’t plan to appeal to the Supreme Court a lower court order that brought an end to the special master review of documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order last week, ruling that she erred when she ordered the appointment of a third-party overseer to review about 100 classified documents that FBI investigators found when they searched Trump’s Florida home in August. A source familiar with the matter told CNN the former president is not planning to appeal the decision.
Trump’s legal team previously argued an outside third party, or special master, was needed to decide whether any documents found at the Florida estate could be privileged. The team had until Thursday to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court or ask for the full 11th Circuit to reconsider the matter.
TRUMP LOSES MAJOR LEGAL FIGHT IN DOCUMENTS CASE AFTER COURT HALTS SPECIAL MASTER REVIEW
The decision not to appeal definitively marks an end to the monthslong legal battle over whether the review should take place and will now allow the Justice Department to move forward in its investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents.
“The law is clear,” the three Republican-appointed judges on the 11th Circuit wrote. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”
The DOJ argued that the special master process could drag out for several weeks and potentially months, adding it could hinder the agency’s investigation into the documents. Without the classified documents, prosecutors said they could not question witnesses about the materials that had been found at the president’s estate.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith to head the documents investigation as well as an investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Smith took over the investigation shortly before the 11th Circuit heard oral arguments in the case during the week of Thanksgiving. He wrote in court filings that he approved the stance prosecutors had taken against the appointment of a special master.
Trump, who recently announced his bid to run for president in 2024, has sustained a number of Supreme Court defeats in recent weeks, the latest being his efforts to shield nearly six years of tax records from a Democratic-led House committee.
