Trump’s push for a special master in Mar-a-Lago docs case comes to an end

Former President Donald Trump’s quest for outside supervision of the Justice Department’s investigation into sensitive White House records seized at his Mar-a-Lago estate came to an end Thursday, after he failed to challenge an appeals court ruling rejecting such oversight.

Trump had a week to contest the issue before the full bench of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals or at the Supreme Court, but he did not. The appeals court formalized its ruling Thursday afternoon ending the so-called “special master” process a lower judge established in September.

The appeals court’s order means the DOJ probe into potentially illegal retention of national security secrets, theft of government records and obstruction of justice can move forward without any external restrictions on prosecutors’ and investigators’ use of nearly 3,000 records the FBI seized from Trump’s Florida home in August, pursuant to a search warrant.

The outcome ends an unusual gambit by Trump’s legal team to complicate the federal criminal probe that spilled into the open on Aug. 8, when FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago and hauled off numerous boxes of records and other personal effects.