Following a raid this month on his private club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., former President Donald Trump Monday filed a lawsuit that aims to block the Department of Justice from reviewing documents seized.
According to a New York Times report, the government has recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, including 150 retrieved in January by the National Archives. Per the report, that high number “ignited intense concern at the Justice Department and helped trigger the criminal investigation that led F.B.I. agents to swoop into Mar-a-Lago this month.”
In addition to the documents retrieved by the National Archives and the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago Trump aides provided another batch of documents to the Justice Department in June. Trump has claimed that he declassified the documents, though experts have called the former president’s claims “preposterous.”
Trump’s representatives request an order appointing a “special master” to review materials seized by the government and a hold on further review until the master is appointed in the lawsuit. According to Cornell Law School, a special master is “appointed by a court to carry out some sort of action on its behalf.”
It also requests the government to provide a “more detailed” receipt of property for the seized materials. In taking the items, the suit argues, the government violated the Fourth Amendment and overstepped boundaries.
By the end of the search this month, government officials left Mar-a-Lago with 26 boxes of material, including 11 sets of material marked as classified, The New York Times said.
“One set had the highest level of classification, top secret/sensitive compartmented information,” said the outlet. Trump’s suit said that items other than documents were taken, including photos, handwritten notes and his passports, which have since been returned.
“The government has declined to provide even the most basic information about what was taken, or why,” said the suit.
According to CNBC, a federal magistrate judge in the same court the suit was filed in is now “considering arguments by media organizations to unseal the FBI affidavit that substantiated the need for a search warrant,” that indicated Trump is under investigation for potential violations of laws related to espionage and obstruction of justice.
“The DOJ is scheduled by Thursday to file suggestions for redacting portions of the warrant,” said CNBC.
Trump’s representatives also argued in the suit that the raid was politically motivated.
“Politics cannot be allowed to impact the administration of justice,” said the suit. “President Donald J. Trump is the clear frontrunner in the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary and in the 2024 General Election, should he decide to run.”
Trump has not made an official announcement about running for president in 2024, though he has hinted at the possibility multiple times.
“The Aug. 8 search warrant at Mar-a-Lago was authorized by a federal court upon the required finding of probable cause,” said DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley in a statement, according to CNBC. He said the U.S. will file a response to Trump’s action in court.
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