In a rebuke to both the Malignant Loser and Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon whom he appointed in the final months of his regime, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has stopped the "special master" review of documents seized during a lawful search of his Merde O'Lardo estate for highly classified documents. With Cannon's collusion, the Malignant Loser had hoped to stall the investigation into his possession of top secret classified documents, which involves violations of the Espionage Act, and his subsequent obstruction of the investigation. From the AP report:
"The decision by the three-judge panel represents a significant win for federal prosecutors, clearing the way for them to use as part of their investigation the entire tranche of documents seized during an Aug. 8 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. It also amounts to a sharp repudiation of arguments by Trump’s lawyers, who for months had said that the former president was entitled to have a so-called 'special master' conduct a neutral review of the thousands of documents taken from the property. [snip]
The decision was a unanimous opinion from the panel of Republican appointees, including two who were selected by Trump. In it, the court rejected each argument by Trump and his attorneys for why a special master was necessary, including his claims that various seized records were protected by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege."
The investigations into the Malignant Loser's handling of highly classified documents, along with his January 6 attempted coup / insurrection, are now in the hands of Special Counsel Jack Smith. There are signs that both investigations are moving along under his management, and the Court's ruling against the "special master" stall tactic will help greatly.
In a clear slap at Trump's colluding Judge Cannon, the Appeals Court judges wrote:
“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. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.
Either approach would be a radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations. And both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations.”
Further appeals, if any, by the Malignant Loser's lawyers are expected to be dismissed.
