Judge Dismisses Trump’s Lawsuit Challenging Mar-a-Lago Documents Seizure After Stopping Special Master Review

Former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit challenging the U.S. government’s access to materials that were seized from his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida was dismissed on Monday by a federal judge.

It marked the formal end to Trump’s months long legal battle following the Federal Bureau of Investigation's raid of his home in August, reported CNBC. The case's dismissal now gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) full access to tens of thousands of materials that were found among documents, which were marked as classified, on Trump’s property, according to CNN.

The new order came just four days after the former President declined to appeal a higher-court ruling. It had canceled the appointment of a special master to review the items that were taken by agents during a raid of Trump’s Florida property on Aug. 8.

A one-page order dismissing the case for lack of jurisdiction was signed by judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump. The order was filed in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, and it also terminated all deadlines, hearings and motions that were still pending in connection with the case. The list includes Trump’s effort to get hands on an unredacted version of the search warrant affidavit that was used to sanction the August raid.

Cannon blocked the DOJ from reviewing the seized materials as part of a criminal probe when in September, she appointed retired Judge Raymond Dearie as special master. The raid by FBI turned up more than 100 documents with classified markings, and last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to oversee an ongoing criminal probe into Trump’s removal of documents from the White House.

On Dec. 1, a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that Cannon should not have appointed the special master. The panel members wrote that she “improperly exercised” an expansion of her jurisdiction.

Earlier, Cannon had delivered major legal victories for Trump, reported Vanity Fair. The first one was when she blocked the Justice Department from using the classified documents that the FBI had seized as part of their probe into Trump. The second win was when she told him that he didn’t have to follow orders by the special master.