Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked a federal judge to reject the Department of Justice’s continued attempts to press on with its review of documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, according to a new filing.
The filing from Trump’s lawyers claimed the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago are governed by the Presidential Records Act and that disputes regarding presidential records are resolved between the president and the National Archives and Records Administration, not the Justice Department. However, it is not possible for any courts to determine where the documents belong “without first conducting a thoughtful, organized review,” the filing said.
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“In what at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control, the Government wrongfully seeks to criminalize the possession by the 45th President of his own Presidential and personal records,” Trump’s legal team wrote.
The filing also warned that Trump is at risk of”irreparable injury” if the documents are not reviewed by a neutral third party, citing recent reports from the media as evidence regarding the reaction to the purportedly “classified” documents. In addition, the filing claimed the decision to prevent the government from reviewing the documents temporarily was warranted so as to review and categorize all of them.
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon granted Trump’s motion for a special master review on Sept. 5, writing that doing so would not “cause undue delay.” The Justice Department filed a notice saying it was appealing the ruling on Thursday.
The Justice Department and Trump’s legal team have each submitted two names to a federal judge for consideration to be appointed as the special master, allowing that person to act as a third party to review the materials taken from Mar-a-Lago. The DOJ’s recommendations include Thomas Griffith and Barbara Jones, two retired judges, while Trump’s nominations include Paul Huck Jr., a lawyer who represented the Trump campaign in 2016, and Raymond Dearie, the former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
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FBI agents collected 26 boxes of material and over 100 documents with classified markings during its search and seizure of the Mar-a-Lago residence on Aug. 8. Documents confiscated ranged from confidential to top-secret information, according to the DOJ.
The Justice Department is investigating possible violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice, per an unsealed warrant for the raid. Trump has adamantly denied wrongdoing and claimed he declassified the documents brought to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
