A member of the Secret Service is seen in front of the home of former President Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on August 9, 2022.
Giorgio Viera | AFP | Getty Images
A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned a judge’s decision to appoint a special watchdog to review documents seized by the FBI from the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump in August as part of a criminal investigation.
The Department of Justice had objected to the appointment of that watchdog, known as a special master, by a federal judge in Florida who was nominated to the bench by Trump. The DOJ said the special master appointment delayed DOJ from using the seized documents as part of that probe until they were cleared.
Trump is being investigated by the department for his removal of government documents from the White House and their shipment to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. By law, those documents belong to the federal government.
“The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant,” a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit wrote in its ruling Thursday.
“Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so,” the appeals panel wrote. “Either approach would be a radical reordering of our case law limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations. And both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations. Accordingly, we agree with the government that the district court improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction, and that dismissal of the entire proceeding is required.”
All three judges on the panel were appointed by Republican presidents. Trump appointed Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher, while Chief Judge Bill Pryor was appointed by George W. Bush.
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Sumber: www.cnbc.com
