The legal team for former President Donald Trump asked a federal court on Wednesday to appoint a Special Master to look into the papers that were taken from his Mar-a-Lago property earlier this month.
In the letter, Trump’s lawyers said that prosecutors were lying about events related to the investigation. They also called the execution of a search warrant on August 8 “unusual, unjustified, and legally unfounded.”
The Justice Department said that Trump’s plan to appoint the special master “fails for multiple, separate reasons” and has no standing in federal court. Trump’s lawyers replied to this in the petition.
Trump’s lawyers say that the arguments in front of the Court “centre on a president’s right to keep his own records,” and that the Justice Department’s case is “clearly deficient.”
On the other hand, prosecutors say that the private records taken from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago house belong to the federal government and should be sent back to the National Archives.
Trump’s staff replied on Wednesday, saying that the idea that sensitive information might be in presidential records was never a reason to worry, and that the National Archives was already talking about these kinds of records.
The National Archives, on the other hand, has released letters that show they are willing to work with the former president’s staff to get the information.
Even though Trump’s team brought up this point in the days after the search, it did not say in its brief that the previous government had released any important information.
Tuesday, the prosecution said that an independent review would be pointless because they had already looked at potentially classified materials and it would slow down their investigation into national security.
Trump’s team questioned how the Justice Department judged material that might be protected, saying that they were trying to “avoid judicial scrutiny.”
Trump’s complaint says that if the DOJ isn’t stopped, it will “discredit, leak, and make public certain parts of their investigation without any recourse.”
In a court filing on Tuesday, the prosecution said that “obstructive behaviour” happened at Mar-a-Lago because Trump’s lawyers tried to hide or delete some data from investigators in the months before the August 8 search.
Lawyers for the government say that Trump’s employees lied to the Justice Department on June 3 when they said that after a “diligent” search of the former president’s house, all sensitive materials had been removed.
In its statement on Wednesday, the Trump administration just said that the June 3 event “had happened.”
“But said they wouldn’t include any more information in the submission,” the government said in response.
Last Monday, Judge Cannon said that she was “leaning toward” granting Trump’s request for a Special Master. On Thursday, she will be in a federal courtroom in Florida to hear arguments from both the Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers.
In a bombshell filing on Tuesday, in response to Cannon’s request, prosecutors showed a picture of some of what they think were classified papers found during the search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8.
Some of the papers found in Trump’s office were cover sheets with the words “SECRET/SCI” and “TOP SECRET/SCI” written on them.
The documents are on display next to a box that has, among other things, a framed Time magazine cover.
The words “Contains sensitive compartmented information up to HCS-P/SI/TK” are written very clearly on the cover sheets.
Trump said bad things about the picture on his social media site Truth Social, and the former president’s lawyers called the Justice Department’s use of the picture “gratuitous.”
Investigators are looking into whether or not Trump tried to stop the law from being done.
They are also looking into whether or not he mishandled classified documents, including those he allegedly took from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate before he leaves office in January 2021.
Since Donald Trump left office more than a year and a half ago, the National Archives and Records Administration has been looking for things he took with him.
In January, they got 15 boxes of papers and then gave the case to the Justice Department to look into further.
Investigators allegedly found evidence of possible interference after issuing subpoenas for documents, asking for security camera footage, and talking with Trump’s lawyers and some of the top officials at the Justice Department.
They said this was enough to justify executing the search warrant on August 8.
The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland made the search warrant public after Trump made the home search public on his social media site, Truth Social.
Then, a different Florida court ordered that the affidavit, which is the supporting paperwork, be made public, but with some parts blacked out.
The [Trump appeal] says that the Special Master and Trump’s staff must have access to an unedited copy of the evidence and other supporting paperwork, such as the receipt of the seized materials.