— Washington Wednesday, former President Donald Trump’s legal team again petitioned a federal judge to appoint a special master to analyze the records seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month.
In a 19-page document, Trump’s legal team characterized the execution of a search warrant on August 8 as “unusual, unwarranted, and legally unsupported” and accused prosecutors of mischaracterizing certain aspects of the investigation.
In the filing, Trump’s attorneys also reacted to Justice Department charges that his appointment of the special master “fails for several, independent reasons” and has no standing in federal court.
Trump’s legal team stated that the Justice Department’s case was “seriously flawed,” adding, “There is no doubt… that the issues before this Court revolve upon the President’s ownership of his own Presidential records.”
However, prosecutors contended that the sensitive documents taken from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate belonged to the federal government and must be transferred to the National Archives.
Mar-a-Lago, the resort of former President Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, as seen from above. John Roca/New York Daily News Archive by way of Getty Images
“The concept that Presidential records would contain sensitive information was never a reason for anxiety,” Trump’s team retorted on Wednesday, adding that these papers were subject to negotiation with the National Archives. The National Archives, for their part, have produced a number of letters indicating their apparent willingness to collaborate with the former president’s staff to recover the papers.
Trump’s legal team did not claim in its petition that the former president declassified any of the relevant records, a defense he and his allies have championed since the search.
Prosecutors stated in their prior filing on Tuesday that the independent review would be unnecessary as they had already seen potentially privileged data and it would impede their national security probe.
Trump’s team questioned the Justice Department’s evaluation of the possibly protected data, accusing them of “evading judicial supervision.”
“Left uncontrolled, the Department of Justice will impugn, leak, and publicize certain elements of their investigation with no remedy,” Trump’s brief claims.
Tuesday, prosecutors said in a court filing that “obstructive behavior” likely took place at Mar-a-Lago after Trump’s legal team reportedly attempted to conceal or destroy certain materials from investigators in the months preceding the August 8 search.
According to government attorneys, Trump’s staff deceived the Justice Department when they told investigators on June 3 that all classified materials had been taken from the former president’s residence after a “vigorous” search.
In their Wednesday response, Trump’s legal team stated only that the June 3 incident “has been severely mischaracterized in the Government’s Response” and that they would not provide any additional information in the filing.
The previous week, Cannon expressed her “intention” to fulfill Trump’s request for a special master. On Thursday, she will hear arguments from Trump’s attorneys and the Justice Department in a Florida federal courtroom.
In response to Cannon’s warning, prosecutors included a photograph of some of the allegedly classified documents obtained during the August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago in their explosive filing on Tuesday. Cover sheets containing sensitive material with the designations “SECRET/SCI” and “TOP SECRET/SCI” were among the documents found from a container in Trump’s office, as represented in the FBI photograph. The documents are placed next to a container containing, among other things, a framed Time magazine cover.
The warning “Contains sensitive compartmented information up to HCS-P/SI/TK” is visible on the cover sheets.
Attorneys for the former president described the Justice Department’s use of the photograph as gratuitous, and President Trump attacked the image on his social media network, Truth Social.
Trump’s alleged mishandling of secret papers, specifically data he transferred from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago property after he left office in January 2021, as well as possible obstruction of the probe, are under scrutiny.
The National Archives and Records Term has spent more than a year and a half attempting to retrieve papers stolen by Trump at the end of his administration.
After gathering 15 cartons of records in January, the agency submitted the case to the Department of Justice for additional investigation.
Following the issuance of subpoenas for records and security camera footage and negotiations between Trump’s attorneys and some of the Justice Department’s top brass, investigators gathered evidence of potential interference that, according to the Tuesday filing by prosecutors, justified the execution of the search warrant on August 8.
Trump made the search of his house public through his social media company, Truth Social, causing the Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland to unseal the warrant for public inspection. A second Florida judge eventually ordered that the affidavit, the underlying evidence, must also be opened, but with redactions.
Trump contends in his filing that the special master and his legal team should have access to an unredacted copy of the evidence and other underlying information, including the receipt of seized materials.
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