US judge halts review of documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

The US Department of Justice has been denied permission to go over classified records seized by the FBI from former US President Donald Trump’s Florida estate, a US judge ruled on Thursday, according to a report from Reuters. 

A third party has been appointed by federal Judge Aileen Cannon to review the records seized by the FBI. Senior District Judge Raymond Dearie will be reviewing the documents, which might be privileged and as a result will be kept from investigators. 

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As a result, the Justice Department has promised to take the current ruling to an appeals court. In addition, it had sought to block Dearie from going over 100 pages of classified documents from the 11,000 pages of records that they had seized on August 8 at Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

“The court does not find it appropriate to accept the government’s conclusions on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party in an expedited and orderly fashion,” wrote Cannon in her ruling on Thursday, according to a report from Reuters. 

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With the ruling, Cannon has complicated the ongoing investigation, at least for the Justice Department. By having a special master review the documents, some of them might become classified, potentially walling off the opportunity for prosecutors to press criminal charges.

The Justice Department is investigating the former president for retaining public records after the end of his time in office. The documents are classified, with some being “top secret”. In addition, prosecutors are looking into a potential obstruction of justice charge after evidence was found that records were concealed or removed from the FBI when its agents were trying to recover all the documents. 

The inquiry into the retention of classified documents is one of the many other federal and state investigations that have been launched against Trump as he prepares to run for president in 2024.