Judge Finally Dumps Trump's Mar-a-Lago Special Master

The special master review of evidence seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is no more, Katelyn Polantz and Tierney Sneed reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: The former president has also been under fire for his close ties and admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday formally dismissed the case, which Trump brought to challenge the Mar-a-Lago evidence collection and in which she appointed special master Raymond Dearie, another judge, to make recommendations on whether prosecutors could access evidence.

The dismissal of the case gives the Justice Department full access to tens of thousands of records and other items found among documents marked as classified in Trump’s beach club and private office.

Cannon’s dismissal follows the appeals court above her deciding that she had no authority to be involved in the Justice Department criminal investigation before any charges are brought.

The court told Cannon the case must be dismissed and there will be no further proceedings before Cannon in the Southern District of Florida. The new order closes the book on what had been a rare bright spot for Trump in his otherwise floundering attempts to stymie the sprawling investigations into his conduct.

Cannon – a Trump appointee who sits on the federal court in Ft. Pierce, Florida, which is in the same US court district as Mar-a-Lago – drew criticism from across the ideological spectrum for how she handled the litigation Trump brought days after the FBI’s search of his winter home.

That critique culminated in a scathing opinion from an appellate court panel – stacked with GOP appointees – that tore apart Trump and Cannon’s rationale for why the special master was necessary. With the dismissal, Trump must now pay Dearie a huge sum for doing a job that he himself believed was not necessary.

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