A federal appeals court on Thursday terminated an independent external reviewer, otherwise known as a special master, appointed to examine thousands of documents that Donald Trump allegedly took illegally upon leaving the White House.
The move is significant because it clears the way for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pursue its ongoing investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents.
“The law is clear,” the appeals court wrote in its statement released Thursday.
“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. . . . To create a special exception here would defy our Nation’s foundational principle that our law applies ‘to all, without regard to numbers, wealth, or rank.'”
Trump was originally granted a special master in September by Florida district judge Aileen M. Cannon over the protests of the DOJ that presidents are not protected by executive privilege after leaving office.
However, the appointment of a special master is uncommon and drew the concern of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, a jurisdiction that includes Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.
Clearing the special-master hurdle now permits the DOJ’s recently appointed special counsel Jack Smith, who the former president has called “compromised” and a “political hit man” on Truth Social, and the DOJ to use the documents in question in their investigation.
President Biden’s attorney general Merrick Garland appointed Smith to the post three days after Donald Trump announced his intention to run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
“Based on recent developments, including the former president’s announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting president’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,” Garland said at a news conference in mid November.