Former US president Donald Trump was dealt a major blow on Thursday (December 1) as an appeals court rejected his efforts to stop prosecutors from examining thousands of government documents at his Florida home. Trump has held on to the documents even after leaving office.
The federal appeals court in Atlanta, Georgia unanimously overruled a previous order by a Florida judge to appoint a “special master” to review documents seized at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach in August, preventing the justice department from using them in its investigation of Trump’s behaviour in the documents case.
The seized documents include thousands of White House records. These were property of the US National Archives. There were also 100 classified documents. Some of them are marked with highest secrecy designations.
Appointment of the special master delayed and threatened to disable the justice department’s criminal investigation of Trump for unauthorised possession of national defence information. This falls under the Espionage Act and for obstruction of justice.
But three Atlanta appeals court justices said there was nothing illegal about the August 8 search and document seizure, and that the Florida judge had no jurisdiction to place limits on the justice department’s examination of the documents.
They also rejected Trump’s claim that the search and seizure violated his rights and that as a former president, he deserved special treatment to protect his reputation.
“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 justices wrote.
The ruling effectively removes restrictions that could have hampered the investigation of Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed on November 18 to take charge of the two major federal investigations into Trump.
(With inputs from agencies)
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