Fox News (WBAP/KLIF) – The Department of Justice (DOJ) Tuesday filed its response opposing the appointment of a “special master” to review documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, saying classified documents were likely “concealed” at the residence in violation of a grand jury subpoena.
Before prosecutors obtained a search warrant, Trump’s lawyers claimed that all of the records from the White House that remained at Mar-a-Lago were in a secure storage room on the premises.
But the filing said documents were likely “concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.”
The warrant was obtained after “the government developed evidence that a search limited to the Storage Room would not have uncovered all the classified documents at the Premises.”
Former President Donald Trump is asking a federal court to appoint a “special master” to conduct an independent review of documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate by the Justice Department earlier this month. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
It continued, “That the FBI, in a matter of hours, recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the ‘diligent search’ that the former President’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter.”
The filing gives the most detailed account of the Mar-a-Lago search so far.
The department argued in the filing that Trump’s request for a special master “fails for multiple, independent reasons,” saying it’s both “unnecessary” and would “harm national security interests.”
The filing said Trump “lacks standing” for a special master because the records in question belong to the United States, not him.
It said Trump won’t suffer any injury without an injunction “and the harms to the government and the public would far outweigh any benefit” to him.
(Fox News)
