Judge Dismisses Trump Lawsuit Over Seized Records, Ending Special Master Review

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Dayton International Airport in Vandalia, Ohio, on Nov. 7, 2022. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A U.S. judge threw out a case on Dec. 12 from former President Donald Trump over the records seized in August from his Florida home by FBI agents.

“This case is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction,” U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, wrote in a one-page order.

The dismissal means that all scheduled hearings are canceled, all pending motions—including a motion for an unredacted copy of the search warrant the FBI executed—are denied as moot, and all deadlines are terminated, Cannon noted.

She directed the court clerk to close the case.

A lawyer representing Trump didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Trump filed the case on Aug. 22, several weeks after agents raided his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and removed thousands of documents and other items as they investigate whether he violated several laws, including one that governs the handling of presidential records.

Trump alleged that the search warrant’s execution violated his constitutional rights, describing it as an “unprecedented and unnecessary raid.”

Government lawyers noted that the warrant was approved by a judge and said it was properly carried out.

Special Master

Cannon, the judge assigned to oversee the case, later agreed to Trump’s request to insert a special master, or an independent third party, to adjudicate disputes over the seized records, finding that the former president was “being deprived of potentially significant personal documents” and facing “an unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public.”

She also ordered the government to stop using records with classified markings that were seized.

An appeals court panel in September sided with the government, enabling officials to utilize the records marked classified in its investigation into Trump. The panel stated that there was “no evidence” that Trump had declassified the documents, as he has claimed.

The same panel ruled on Dec. 1 that Cannon didn’t have jurisdiction to insert a special master.

The panel ordered a stop to the special master review but held the order for seven days to give Trump time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump hasn’t lodged an appeal, according to court records.

The appeals court entered the order on Dec. 8. Cannon cited the order in dismissing the case.

Her order also ends the special master review.

U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, the special master, had been scheduled to give a final report to Cannon by Dec. 16. Cannon would have reviewed the report and issued orders on any remaining disputes that the parties hadn’t resolved.