A federal judge Monday tossed Donald Trump's lawsuit challenging the FBI's Mar-a-Lago search.
Aileen Cannon, the judge, said she dismissed the case over a "lack of jurisdiction."
The ruling came after an appeals court overturned her decision to grant Trump a special master.
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The federal judge who granted former President Donald Trump's request for a special master in the Mar-a-Lago case just tossed his lawsuit challenging the FBI's raid of his South Florida estate.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon wrote in a one-page Monday order that she was dismissing the case because of a "lack of jurisdiction."
The ruling came after a three-judge federal appeals court issued a scathing opinion on December 1 overturning Cannon's initial decision to side with Trump and grant him a special master to review materials seized in the FBI's search. Less than week later, a federal appeals court in Atlanta formally ended the review.
Trump's team had the option to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court but didn't.
Cannon's ruling Monday officially dismissed the case on the special master, an outside arbiter who had been tasked with reviewing documents that were recovered at Mar-a-Lago with the goal of determining whether any were protected by attorney-client or executive privilege.
The higher court's ruling was a victory for the Justice Department, which had appealed Cannon's decision and said the special master would slow the investigation amid national security concerns and cause "irreparable harm" to the government and the public.
After Cannon's ruling, the Justice Department can once again fully access the records it seized from Mar-a-Lago.
Trump's legal team did not immediately reply to an email requesting comment.
Two of the three judges on the panel from the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit were Trump appointees, and the third was appointed by President George W. Bush. Cannon, too, was a Trump nominee.
While executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on August 8, federal agents seized several boxes of government documents, 11,000 of which were general records and 100 of which were marked classified.
The appeals-court panel said defendants could challenge a search's findings once they'd been charged. Trump has not been indicted in the case. The panel was also highly critical of Cannon's decision to grant Trump's request, saying she didn't have the jurisdiction to intervene in the case in the first place.
"It is indeed extraordinary for a warrant to be executed at the home of a former president — but not in a way that affects our legal analysis or otherwise gives the judiciary license to interfere in an ongoing investigation," the appeals court said in its 21-page opinion.
After Trump publicly announced the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago on August 8, the Justice Department took the unusual step of asking a federal judge to unseal the search warrant and other records related to the search.
At a press conference, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department had made the request "in light of the former president's public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances, and the substantial public interest in this matter."
The unsealed warrant showed the Justice Department was investigating whether Trump broke three federal laws, including the Espionage Act, when he moved the records from the White House to Mar-a-Lago upon leaving office.
Trump has repeatedly accused the FBI of planting materials at his home. The special master in the case, Judge Raymond Dearie, said Trump's team must provide evidence to support their claims, which they failed to do.
After Trump officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign last month, Garland announced he was appointing Jack Smith, a veteran war-crimes prosecutor, as special counsel overseeing all federal investigations involving Trump.
That includes the Mar-a-Lago case, as well as the Justice Department's sprawling inquiry into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Arctimon on December 12nd, 2022 at 17:23 UTC »
Because she had no choice at this point.
She got her ass handed to her by more competent people.
readerf52 on December 12nd, 2022 at 16:01 UTC »
It was part of the appeals court decision, she had to overturn her own bad decision. This was the appeals court way of sticking her nose in the poop so she didn’t poop on justice and jurisprudence again.
ZeMole on December 12nd, 2022 at 15:38 UTC »
Misleading headline. She did what she was TOLD to do. She didn’t have a sudden change of heart. She was ordered to.