The submitting, his closing written authorized argument earlier than a crucial listening to Thursday, acknowledged that labeled materials was discovered at Mar-a-Lago, however argued that it shouldn’t have been trigger for alarm — and shouldn’t have led to the search of Trump’s Florida residence earlier this month.
Portray the probe as politically charged given Trump’s potential run as a candidate 2024, he scoffed at the concept the DOJ may very well be “entrusted with the accountability of evaluating its unjustified pursuit of criminalizing a former President’s possession of private and Presidential data in a safe setting.”
The Justice Division had mentioned in court docket filings that the search was undertaken after the FBI developed proof that Trump’s workforce had hid supplies after claiming all labeled supplies had been turned over in June.
“The purported justification for the initiation of this legal probe was the alleged discovery of delicate info contained throughout the 15 containers of Presidential data,” Trump’s attorneys wrote. “However this ‘discovery’ was to be totally anticipated given the very nature of Presidential data. Merely put, the notion that Presidential data would comprise delicate info ought to have by no means been trigger for alarm.”
Trump’s attorneys argue that below the Presidential Information Act, the Archives ought to have adopted up with an excellent religion effort to safe restoration of presidential data, slightly than referring a legal probe to the Justice Division.
In posts on his social media platform Reality Social on Wednesday, Trump claimed that he had declassified the entire paperwork within the picture.
“Horrible the way in which the FBI, through the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, threw paperwork haphazardly everywhere in the ground (maybe pretending it was me that did it!),” Trump wrote, “after which began taking photos of them for the general public to see. Thought they wished them saved Secret? Fortunate I Declassified!”
The photographs, nonetheless, don’t present high secret info however solely the quilt web page for secret paperwork, neither is there proof that the paperwork had been in truth declassified.
There are additionally no references within the 19-page submitting submitted Wednesday to declassification. In a single passage, Trump’s attorneys write the Justice Division’s submitting Tuesday included {a photograph} of “allegedly labeled supplies.”
Ought to a particular grasp be appointed, Trump’s submitting argued “it will be acceptable for the particular grasp to own a High Secret/SCI safety clearance” — an implicit admission of the top-level classification markings on the paperwork.
The listening to is scheduled for Thursday at 1 p.m. ET.
Trump needs copies of paperwork seized and unredacted affidavit, attorneys say
Trump’s authorized workforce mentioned the federal government ought to present each the particular grasp and Trump himself with copies of the supplies the FBI seized.
The previous President can be searching for a replica of the search warrant and an unredacted copy of the supplies used to acquire it — which would come with the affidavit that was launched final week in redacted type.
“The Authorities ought to present to the particular grasp and to Movant a replica of the Seized Supplies, a replica of the Search Warrant, and an unredacted copy of the underlying software supplies,” the submitting mentioned.
The Justice Division argued that releasing the unredacted affidavit would hurt the federal investigation into the paperwork, which is ongoing, together with revealing witnesses. Considered one of Trump’s attorneys has urged in tv interviews that his workforce wished to be taught the identifies of witnesses within the probe.
The Justice Division has additionally beforehand pushed again towards Trump’s allegation that prosecutors maliciously reworked a dispute over the toothless Presidential Information Act right into a full-blown legal investigation.
Prosecutors mentioned Tuesday in a court docket submitting that “this investigation isn’t merely about efforts to get better improperly retained Presidential data.” They referenced the search warrant, which a choose accredited after discovering possible explanation for Espionage Act violations, legal dealing with of presidency data, and obstruction of justice.
Additional pushing again on Trump’s narrative, prosecutors identified that the federal regulation they cited about mishandling of presidency data particularly makes it against the law to hide or take away “Presidential data.”
Listening to Thursday over particular grasp and filter course of
Trump filed the lawsuit early final week — 14 days after the search warrant was executed — claiming that his constitutional rights had been trampled within the search. He demanded {that a} particular grasp be appointed to assessment the supplies seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago. A particular grasp is a third-party lawyer who’s appointed by courts in some conditions — typically these the place attorneys’ places of work have been searched — to assessment proof obtained by the federal government and filter out privileged supplies that must be saved out of the fingers of investigators.
The Justice Division argued within the Tuesday submitting that appointing a particular grasp could be each “pointless” and a transfer that may impede the legal probe in addition to the danger evaluation being undertaken by the intelligence neighborhood. Prosecutors argued that Trump failed to beat the procedural thresholds required in making the ask.
The DOJ mentioned Trump’s situation — one primarily targeted on questionable claims of government privilege — was a lot totally different than the conditions the place particular masters had been sometimes appointed. In these circumstances, supplies lined by attorney-client privilege is the primary concern.
Prosecutors have beforehand informed the court docket that “a restricted set of supplies” probably overlaying attorney-client privilege had been recovered within the search. The DOJ’s inside filter workforce has already completed its work of segregating these supplies from what’s shared with investigators, the division mentioned Tuesday, and the remainder of the paperwork have already been reviewed by the brokers engaged on the case.
Trump attacked the inner filter course of the DOJ carried out, which was accredited by US Justice of the Peace Bruce Reinhart when he signed off on the warrant in early August. That course of, “offers the filter Privilege Evaluation Crew with just about unchecked discretion in addressing potential privilege disputes,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.
He mentioned the 3 ways the DOJ outlined that the filter workforce would cope with privileged supplies was not “ample to guard Movant’s vital pursuits, and never surprisingly, as of this submitting the Privilege Evaluation Crew has made no effort to contact Movant’s counsel concerning its decisionmaking or the outcomes of the privilege assessment.”
The submitting additionally set ahead new element in how the particular grasp ought to function — particulars that had been lacking from his preliminary movement final week and the follow-up submission that was filed final Friday on the choose’s request.
Trump’s submitting forged himself because the affordable actor within the occasions main as much as search, describing the months that his workforce postpone the federal government’s efforts to acquire the report as a “commonplace give-and-take between former Presidents and (the Nationwide Archives and Information Administration) concerning Presidential library contents.”
A go to FBI officers paid Mar-a-Lago to retrieve paperwork had been demanded in a subpoena, had been in Trump’s phrases, him “actually permitting DOJ attorneys and FBI investigators to return to his residence and supply safety recommendation.”
This story has been up to date with further particulars.
