Former president Donald Trump’s legal team is fighting back against the Justice Department’s motion to continue reviewing the classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, arguing in a Monday filing that the “unprecedented and misguided” investigation has “spiraled out of control.”
Trump’s attorneys urged U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to maintain her order preventing the government from reviewing the seized materials, despite the DOJ’s claim that the hold on classified materials is preventing them from making progress on a crucial national-security investigation.
In their filing, signed by Christopher M. Kise, Trump’s team dismissed the DOJ’s argument that there is an urgent necessity to examine the documents since “there is not indication any purported ‘classified records’ were disclosed to anyone.”
“The Government generally points to the alleged urgent need to conduct a risk assessment of possible unauthorized disclosure of purported ‘classified records.’ But there is no indication any purported ‘classified records’ were disclosed to anyone,” the filing reads.
“Indeed, it appears such ‘classified records,’ along with the other seized materials, were principally located in storage boxes in a locked room at Mar-a-Lago, a secure, controlled access compound utilized regularly to conduct the official business of the United States during the Trump Presidency, which to this day is monitored by the United States Secret Service,” the filing continues.
Kise argued that Cannon’s order to assign a special master to review the documents is a “sensible preliminary step towards restoring order from chaos” and that the DOJ should not be able to skip “the process and proceed straight to a preordained conclusion.” Without the appointment of a neutral third party, the filing stated, the government could use the classified documents to build a criminal case against Trump.
The DOJ has not proven the the purported classified materials seized from the property “remain classified,” the filing argued, adding that, as president, Trump had the authority to declassify any document he wished.
Trump’s lawyers argue that the President Records Act gives the president “extraordinary discretion to categorize all his or her records as either Presidential or personal records, and established case law provides for very limited judicial oversight over such categorization.”
Both the Trump team and the DOJ have submitted their preferred candidates to serve as special master, but the two sides disagree on the scope of the chosen third party’s assignment.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that the special master should examine all documents taken from Mar-a-Lago and screen out any materials that are classified or protected by executive privilege. The DOJ, meanwhile, has argued that the individual should not be granted the authority to examine classified documents or weigh in on executive privilege claims.
If the two sides fail to agree on a candidate, Judge Cannon will appoint someone.