The Daily Fuckup

A federal judge on Dec. 12, 2022, formally dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit over the Mar-a-Lago search, saying the court lacked jurisdiction to keep the case going. The order came after the Eleventh Circuit had already ruled on Dec. 1 that the district court could not block the government from using lawfully seized records in the criminal investigation, which effectively ended the special-master review Trump had sought. ([media.ca11.uscourts.gov](https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202213005.pdf))

The dismissal cleared the docket in a case Trump had used to press for extra judicial review of documents taken from his Florida resort. In the underlying dispute, his lawyers argued that a special master should sort through the material before investigators could keep using it, citing privilege concerns and the handling of records seized in the search. The appeals court rejected that framework, and Cannon’s later order brought the district court case into line with that ruling. ([media.ca11.uscourts.gov](https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202213005.pdf))

The practical effect was to remove the last court-based hold Trump had on the special-master process in that lawsuit. The case itself was only one part of the broader classified-documents investigation, which also involved questions about retained government records and possible obstruction. Cannon’s Dec. 12 order did not add a new merits ruling on those issues; it ended the civil action Trump had filed to try to slow review of the seized materials. ([media.ca11.uscourts.gov](https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202213005.pdf))

A separate development that day underscored how busy Trump’s legal calendar was becoming: prosecutors in the Georgia election investigation issued a subpoena to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. That subpoena was part of a different inquiry and had no effect on the Mar-a-Lago dismissal. ([media.ca11.uscourts.gov](https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202213005.pdf))