UNITED STATES: Washington: His legal team filed a lawsuit demanding the appointment of an impartial attorney to supervise the documents that FBI agents earlier this month had taken.
According to the FBI, 11 sets of confidential documents were stolen from Donald Trump’s Florida residence on August 8.
Donald Trump is under investigation for allegedly mishandling papers.
The FBI is investigating whether Trump improperly handled records by taking them from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after he left office in January 2021. US presidents must transfer all their papers and emails to a government organisation called the National Archive.
He claims the items were declassified and has denied any wrongdoing.
The legal team for Donald Trump accuses the justice department of searching “simply wanting the camel’s nose under the tent so they could rummage for either politically helpful documents or support efforts to thwart President Trump from running again” in the 27-page document submitted to a Florida court.
Should he decide to run, it states, “President Donald J. Trump is the clear frontrunner in the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary and the 2024 General Election.”
It continues, Law enforcement is a shield that guards Americans. It cannot be employed as a tool for political ends. About two dozen FBI agents made the shockingly forceful move on Mar-a-Lago without knowing the grief that it would cause most Americans,” according to Trump’s attorneys.
According to a brief statement from the Department of Justice (DoJ), prosecutors were aware of Donald Trump’s complaint and will react in court. According to spokesman Anthony Coley, the “search warrant at Mar-a-Lago was authorised by a federal court upon the necessary finding of probable cause.”
This information comes as the New York Times reported on Monday that investigators had so far retrieved from Donald Trump over 300 documents marked with a classified classification, including records from the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the FBI.
Donald Trump files a lawsuit
On Monday, Donald Trump filed a lawsuit in Florida’s West Palm Beach before a judge he has selected to serve on the bench in 2020. The items taken from Trump’s estate are listed in detail in his lawsuit, and he requests that the government return any items that were outside the purview of the search warrant.
His attorneys have also requested that a “neutral” special master be appointed to assess whether the confiscated documents fall under the president’s right to executive privilege, which shields some communications from public view.
Ordinarily, special masters are appointed in criminal proceedings where there are suspicions that some evidence may be shielded by the attorney-client privilege or by other legal provisions that would prevent its admission into evidence.
According to the court document, Donald Trump cooperated with agents before the FBI showed up at his residence without warning. According to his attorneys, the search violated the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, which safeguards citizens against arbitrary search and seizure.
The affidavit, the sworn evidence used to support the FBI search, is still up for consideration by the judge who issued the warrant for the unprecedented criminal inquiry into a former US president’s residence.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart stated on Monday that the government’s proposed redactions to the affidavit were so broad as to render it “meaningless” if published. However, he added that given the public interest in the case, he still thought it should not be totally sealed.
Before leaving office in January 2021, Trump insisted he had done nothing wrong and that all the materials he took with him had already been released.
Donald Trump lists the timeline of the investigation
January 2022: The National Archives removed 15 boxes of White House papers from Mar-a-Lago and reports that some of the papers it obtained at the end of the Trump administration were torn up.
February: After hearing that classified documents were discovered in the Mar-a-Lago stockpile, the National Archives has requested that the DoJ look into the matter.
April: According to US media, the FBI has launched a preliminary investigation.
June 3: Three FBI agents and a top DoJ official travel to Mar-a-Lago to examine objects in a basement. Trump claims that he said, “Whatever you need, just let us know.”
June 8: Federal investigators urge for a stronger lock to be used to safeguard the room, housing the objects in a letter to a Trump assistant. Trump claims that his request was immediately complied with.
June 22: The DoJ summons The Trump Organization for Mar-a-Lago CCTV footage.
August 8: According to the search warrant, dozens of agents searched Mar-a-Lago and seized more than 20 boxes, some of which included top-secret documents.
Also Read: FBI Retrieves Sensitive Secret Files from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Residence
