Court lifts judge's hold blocking DOJ from using classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago

An appeals court on Wednesday granted the Justice Department's request to block a hold by U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon related to the seizure of sensitive documents at former President Trump's Florida estate. 

The ruling by the three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit said that Cannon mistakenly prevented federal prosecutors from using 100 documents with classification markings as part of the criminal probe. 

"It is self-evident that the public has a strong interest in ensuring that the storage of the classified records did not result in ‘exceptionally grave damage to the national security,’" they wrote. "Ascertaining that," they added, "necessarily involves reviewing the documents, determining who had access to them and when, and deciding which (if any) sources or methods are compromised."