WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s legal team has told a newly appointed independent arbiter that it does not want to answer his questions about the declassification status of the documents seized last month from the former president’s Florida home, saying that issue could be part of Trump’s defense if he’s indicted.
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Lawyers for Trump and for the Justice Department are to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday before a veteran judge named last week as special master to review the roughly 11,000 documents — including about 100 marked as classified — taken during the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago.
Ahead of the status conference, Raymond Dearie, the special master, requested the two sides to submit a proposed agenda and also provided a draft plan for how he envisions the process moving forward over the next two months.
Trump’s lawyers signaled in a Monday evening letter their objection to several aspects of that draft plan, including a request from Dearie that they disclose to him and to the Justice Department information about the classification status of the seized documents.
The resistance to the judge’s request was notable because it was the Trump team, not the Justice Department, that had requested the appointment of a special master to conduct an independent review of the documents so that any material covered by claims of legal privilege could be segregated from the investigation — and because the Trump team’s recalcitrance included an acknowledgment that the probe could be building toward an indictment.
Trump has maintained without evidence that all of the records were declassified; his lawyers have not echoed that claim, though they have asserted that a president has absolute authority to declassify information.
In the letter, Trump’s lawyers say the time for addressing that question would be if they file a motion seeking the return by the Justice Department of some of the property taken from Mar-a-Lago.
“Otherwise, the Special Master process will have forced the Plaintiff to fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment.” the lawyers wrote.
The Trump team also asked the judge to consider pushing back all of the deadlines for his review.
Also Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers were to respond to a Justice Department’s appeal of a different judge’s order barring the department at least temporarily from using the classified documents it seized as part of its criminal investigation. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, in the same order appointing the special master, directed the department to halt its use of the records until Dearie can complete his work.
what is he scared of?
Trump’s team knows what it’s doing. They’re thinking ahead.
Trump 2024
Dearie is a respected no nonsense judge and Trump is an all nonsense con man.
Confused. The Special Master wants to know the declassification status of the documents and Trump claims they were all declassified. So that is the status-declassified according to Trump.
Haha Trump rocks. Yes he ask for the special master and is now giving them a hard time. Its a smart game. Stall as much as you can and make it as hard as you can to get anything done. Don’t you see? Trump will never sit behind bars. You will never get your prize. Maybe one day you’ll get an indictment but good luck getting him to sit. That’s why this is such a waste of time. Because yes its too bad Trump can get away with thingts that you and I can’t . Thats life now move on. Yes its not fair but too bad. Does that mean he can shoot someone on 5th ave in broad day light and get away with it? No Thats a different kind of crime. Murder is something where there much less monkey business. Although some get away with it easier than white collar crimes but still.
Main point, you ain’t getting Trump to sit so all this is a waste of time. Unless of course the goal is, keep trump releavnt enough so it enrgizes the best but keep the PR just bad enough that it scares independents. The idea is we would trump candidiates to run in 2022 but we also want the election to be focused on trump. Like this the population ignores Biden’s failures. This seems to be working well so far. scary. I give the dems an A+ for strategy