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Thursday's opinion makes clear the appellate judges' belief that Cannon stepped widely outside of her jurisdiction in appointing the special master.

The judges wrote that Trump had made no argument and presented no proof that the government exercised a \"callous disregard\" for his rights in carrying out the search, which would be the necessary standard for such an extraordinary intervention by the courts into the executive branch's law enforcement functions.

They dismissed as a \"sideshow\" Trump's legal team's argument that the Presidential Records Act gives him some right of personal possession over the documents, noting that even if he was correct -- the items would still likely be subject to seizure under the search warrant.

\"The status of a document as personal or presidential does not alter the authority of the government to seize it under a warrant supported by probable cause; search warrants authorize the seizure of personal records as a matter of course,\" they wrote.

The judges also addressed whether Trump's status as a former president would create some kind of exemption or carve-out to justify judicial intervention in the search.

\"It is indeed extraordinary for a warrant to be executed at the home of a former president—but not in a way that affects our legal analysis or otherwise gives the judiciary license to interfere in an ongoing investigation,\" they wrote. \"To create a special exception here would defy our Nation’s foundational principle that our law applies “to all, without regard to numbers, wealth, or rank.”

\"PHOTO:
Marco Bello/Reuters, FILE
PHOTO: In this Aug. 15, 2022, file photo, former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home is shown in Palm Beach, Fla.
>

The Department of Justice had accused Trump's legal team of using the special master proceedings as a \"shell game\" to try and delay the progress of their investigation and called Cannon's appointment of a special master an \"extraordinary judicial intrusion into a core executive branch function.\"

The 11th Circuit previously granted a request from the DOJ to stay portions of a ruling by Cannon that blocked the government from using the roughly 100 documents with classification markings recovered from Mar-a-Lago in its investigation and demanded they be handed over to special master Dearie.

Trump's attorneys then appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court, which declined to take up the matter.

Following that ruling, federal officials quickly moved for an expedited appeal to have the 11th Circuit end Dearie's review in its entirety -- arguing that the government's inability to access the roughly 13,000 remaining non-classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago was hampering their investigation.

\"PHOTO:
U.S. Department Of Justice via Reuters
PHOTO: FBI photograph of redacted documents and classified cover sheets recovered from a container stored in former U.S. president Donald Trump's Florida estate that was included in a U.S. Department of Justice filing Aug. 30, 2022.
>

Authorities will now be able to use the documents as evidence as they question witnesses and further examine the circumstances behind Trump's decision to remove thousands of government records -- including some with markings that refer to the nation's most protected secrets -- from the White House and store them at his private resort.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee the Mar-a-Lago investigation as well as a separate probe into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Last week, Trump's lawyers separately asked Cannon to order the Justice Department to hand over the full, unredacted affidavit that was used to justify the search warrant on Trump's residence. Cannon has yet to respond to their motion, but the Justice Department has expressed concern that disclosure of the details in the affidavit could jeopardize their investigation and potentially endanger cooperating witnesses.

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