WASHINGTON — A three-judge panel ruled Wednesday that a special master should not have been appointed to review materials the FBI seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, a decision that ends the outside review of thousands of documents that has delayed for months a criminal investigation into the former president’s handling of classified information after leaving office.
The decision allows the Justice Department to resume using those materials as part of its investigation into whether Trump illegally kept classified records after leaving office and obstructed the FBI’s attempts to recover them.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon had ordered the government not to use the materials while the review took place, limiting what evidence the department could access during its investigation.
