The special master ruling means Trump Mar-a-Lago investigation is suspended, for now

The odds are that the Justice Department will file an appeal in the Eleventh Circuit to challenge Florida federal district Judge Aileen Cannon’s order granting former President Donald Trump’s petition for a special master.

A special master is a court-appointed arbiter – generally, a neutral lawyer acceptable to both sides – who would review the documents seized by the FBI from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8. The seizures were pursuant to a warrant issued by Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart three days earlier.

On that point, it is curious that the former president did not seek the special master by filing a motion before Reinhart. One also wonders why, rather than appointing an outside lawyer (one who would have to have a high security clearance to perform the special master duties in a case involving seizures of highly classified intelligence), Judge Cannon did not give the assignment to either Reinhart or one of the 15 other magistrate judges who sit in the Southern District of Florida.