The former President Donald Trump’s legal team attacked the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI for throwing documents taken from Mar-a-Lago on the floor “for dramatic effects” in Wednesday’s court filing.
“Even Yesterday, the Government’s response gratuitously included an image of allegedly classified material, taken from a container, and spread on the floor for dramatic effect,” Trump attorneys wrote .
Wednesday was filed by Trump’s lawyers in response to Tuesday’s DOJ filing against Trump’s request to a special master for an independent review of documents seized from Mar-a-Lago by the FBI in the early August.
Trump’s legal team blasted Trump’s opposition motion. They called it “extraordinary” and suggested that “the DOJ and only the DOJ should be charged with evaluating the unjustified pursuit to criminalize a former President’s personal and presidential records in a secured setting .”
“Now the Government turns the response to a motion to a Special Master into an allencompassing challenge to any court consideration, now or in the future of any aspect its unprecedented behavior in this investigation.” Trump’s lawyers wrote .
In the DOJ filing Jay Bratt, chief counterintelligence officer said that the government had “evidence” that the government discovered that the Storage Room contained government records and suggested that the efforts to block the investigation .”
were made.
The DOJ responded to Trump’s request to a special master with photos of documents that the FBI had seized from Mar-a-Lago. These photographs led some to believe that this is where Trump stored the documents.
“There seems to be confusion as to the ‘picture’ where documents were sloppily thrown on the floor and then released photographically for the world to see, as if that’s what the FBI found when they broke into my home,” Trump posted on Truth Social hours before his legal team submitted its latest filing. He continued:
Wrong!
Wrong! The Raid was a deceitful operation. They didn’t drop them but me. They were instructed to go outside.
Trump’s lawyers also criticised the justification of the federal government’s criminal investigation into the former president. Trump lawyers said
The purported justification for the initiation of this criminal probe was the alleged discovery of sensitive information contained within the 15 boxes of Presidential records. This ‘discovery” was expected given the nature of presidential records. The notion that presidential records could contain sensitive information shouldn’t have been alarming.
Although the DOJ claimed a special master was not necessary since its “filter group” had conducted a preliminary examination of the documents seized, Trump’s legal team attacked the Privilege Review team at the DOJ for failing to contact them. They argued that the review was “wholly inadequate .”
Trump’s lawyers argued that federal officials “expeditiously “facilitated” the preliminary review of documents Trump asked for an independent review, even though Judge Aileen Cannon had announced her intention to “preliminary intent to appoint special master .”
Second, the Government now has the temerity to argue that any involvement by a Special Master will “interfere” with the now ongoing Intelligence Community review of the materials. The need for judicial involvement has never been more clearly demonstrated than in the case against interference. This is all in the context a unilateral filter operation, which to date has not made contact with counsel for Movant. Another historic first for DOJ.
Trump’s legal team warned that parts of the DOJ’s investigation would be leaked to the media. Trump’s lawyers wrote that if left unchecked the DOJ would leak parts of its investigation to the media.
Judge Cannon will hold a hearing on Trump’s request for a special master on Thursday at 1: 00 p.m. EST.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.
