Trump hires a ‘knife fighter’ attorney to defend him in the Mar-a-Lago raid case. The former president retains Florida’s former solicitor general to defend him in the Mar-a-Lago raid case.
Trump has hired the former attorney general of Florida, Chris Kise.
During transitions, Kise counseled Ron DeSantis and former Governor Rick Scott.
Today, the Department of Justice answers to a judge’s “preliminary” decision to appoint a special master. Kise has argued and won cases before the U.S. and Florida Supreme Courts.
Former President Donald Trump is bolstering his legal team in preparation for a protracted battle against the government over records the FBI collected during its raid on Mar-a-Lago last month.
Chris Kise, a former Florida solicitor general, has been hired by the former president, who on Tuesday attacked the FBI in a tweet storm after calling for a rematch of the 2020 election.
Kise assisted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis throughout his transition, much as he did for former Governor Rick Scott.
SeDantis is seen as one of Trump’s most formidable possible opponents for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
The news of the hiring, which was first reported by NBC, comes as the Justice Department prepares to file a lengthy legal opinion criticizing Trump’s request for a’special master’ to sort through his claims of executive privilege regarding 15 boxes of documents he returned from his private Florida club.
According to the network, the newest member of Trump’s legal team has earned a reputation as a “skilled political knife fighter.”
The hiring follows US District Judge Eileen Cannon’s ‘preliminary intent’ to grant Trump’s request for a special master over the weekend.
Former President Donald Trump has hired a new attorney to defend him against a federal inquiry that prompted FBI officers to investigate Mar-a-Lago.
The Department of Justice was preparing to file a scathing response on Tuesday, after filing an unopposed motion Monday evening to double the typical length of its answer to 40 pages.
It requested the additional word count in order to “adequately address the legal and factual issues” presented by Trump’s legal team.
Some legal experts have criticized the request made by Trump’s current legal team in his lawsuit, stating that a third party should not pick through a previous president’s claim of executive privilege.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the FBI for the Mar-a-Lago raid.
In correspondence with Trump’s attorneys, the National Archives made plain that it believes the privilege belongs to the incumbent president, President Biden.
The government states in a document that a ‘filter team’ of FBI agents sifting through 15 boxes of evidence seized from Mar-a-Lago has concluded its review of potentially privileged information.
Additionally, Judge Cannon ordered the Justice Department to submit a more complete accounting of what was taken from Mar-a-Lago, which the government promised to do.
The Department of Justice is investigating suspected violations of the Espionage Act. The law oversees the taking and keeping of sensitive information, as agents at Mar-a-Lago took hundreds of pages of classified information.
After federal lawyers asked Trump to return records and then subpoenaed them, before agents arrived at Mar-a-Lago while Trump was gone, there are hints that investigators are also examining the possibility of obstruction.
Trump has frequently blasted the search as politically motivated, and his attorney Jim Trusty minimized the retention of government-owned materials on Monday evening.
He cited the request made by the government during a June visit, which was revealed in leaked email by another judge, to install a stronger lock on a storage area where papers were being kept.
Trusty stated that there was a ‘chronology of cooperation’ and told Fox News that it demonstrated a ‘accommodating’ president.
The Department of Justice’s recommendation five days later was, “Hey, please lock the door.” That is not the type of evidence required for an urgent nuclear-related espionage investigation. That is the content of a late library book.
Since vying for and winning the presidency, Trump has utilized a succession of attorneys.
Kise has successfully argued cases before the United States and Florida Supreme Courts.