Former President Donald J. Trump may have thought he was playing insults when he asked a federal judge last week for an independent review of documents seized from his Florida residence – a move that would at best delay but not derail the investigation into the handling of his records.
But on Tuesday night, the Department of Justice used a regular court file in the matter of starting a blistering counterattack that Revealing new evidence that Mr. Trump and his legal team may have interfered with the investigation.
In the filing, in Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, department officials revealed more details about classified documents Mr. a remarkable photo some of them lined up on the floor of Mar-a-Lago, his home and private club in Florida. In what is sometimes read as a road map for a potential impending prosecution, filing also give the proof that Mr. Trump and his lawyers may have obstructed justice.
It seems that Mr. Trump, seemingly not fully understanding the potential dangers of his modest legal move, opened a door, allowing the Justice Department to overtake him and take the initiative.
“The Trump team gets more than they bargained for,” said Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney in Manhattan and a longtime Trump critic. “In response to a particularly thin and delayed overall movement, the DOJ had the opportunity to expand.”
Federal prosecutors do not appear to be close to deciding whether to charge Mr. Trump or anyone else in the document case. Not sure what it is harm, if any, to national security has been made by Mr. Trump’s decision to keep documents confidential at his beach club – or even the specific topics they cover.
Mr. Trump escaped the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III without facing obstruction charges, at the time mentioned by a Department legal memo Judicial guidance against indicating a sitting president. But making a new case centered on documents found at Mar-a-Lago would also be politically tense, as Mr Trump appears to be planning another run for the House. White.
However, the Justice Department’s objection to Mr. Trump’s request that Mr. Trump request a special master to review the retrieved documents is nothing if not very broad. Comprised of more than 36 pages, it combines complex legal arguments with an easy-to-read account of how, for more than a year, Mr. Trump and his lawyers have repeatedly evaded government efforts to retrieve documents.
On its last page is what Bharara calls “a thousand additional words”: an image of five yellow documents marked “Top Secret” and a red folder labeled “Secret.” lying on the ground next to a box of magazine covers.
The image, which appears to be a standard photograph of evidence, is something the government collects all the time for use in potential trials. But because Mr. Trump and his lawyers had made controversial statements about their handling of the case, it provided an opportunity for the Justice Department to make the photo public, which has now appeared numerous times on social media. television news.
On Wednesday, returning to the attack, Mr. Trump attacked the image.
“It is appalling that the FBI, during its raid on Mar-a-Lago, threw documents indiscriminately all over the floor,” he wrote on his social media platform. He said, in a questioning way only: “(Probably pretend I did it!)”
Later that evening, Mr. Trump’s lawyers angrily extended their call to a particular employer in the case, telling a federal judge that Mr. Trump only possessed “presidential records”. own”. In an 18-page filing, the attorneys suggested that by carrying out what they called an “unprecedented, unnecessary and unsupported raid” on Mar-a-Lago , the Justice Department has “criminalized possession of a former president’s personal and presidential records in a secure setting.”
More about Trump Documents Investigation
In terms of merit, Mr. Trump’s request for a special master’s degree is an attempt to retrieve presidential records that he and his lawyers dispute are protected by executive privilege. But if it succeeds, it can too slow down the Justice Department investigation about whether he improperly withheld documents in the first place and then interfered with the investigation.
The Justice Department first denied the claim Tuesday night by pointing out that Mr. Trump, as a former president, does not have the power to assert executive privilege over the documents when prosecutors federal – current member of the executive branch – has a court order. guaranteed to get them. The summary also notes that delaying a special review would not be necessary as prosecutors have completed their own review.
As is often the case with Mr. Trump, the papers his legal team submitted to the judge overseeing the matter, Aileen M. Cannon, did not just lay out legal arguments. They often drift into unrelated topics (the former president’s vote count) or make unrelated complaints (such as one about “bizarre Russian collusion claims”).
While Mr. Trump’s lawyers have sought to portray the former president as a victim of abuse by the administration, they also claim that he has fully cooperated with the government’s effort to get the documents back.
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Mr. Trump’s lawyers say that in May, the former president “voluntarily” accepted a grand jury subpoena to search for documents still in his possession bearing “the mark of classification.” A month later, according to attorneys, Mr. Trump met with a top federal prosecutor and three FBI agents who went to Mar-a-Lago to obtain documents required by the subpoena. court.
Welcoming them in his campus dining room, Mr. Trump assured the men he was there to help. “Anything you need,” the newspapers quoted him as saying, “just let us know.”
In the filing on Tuesday, the Justice Department took issue with this mandatory portrait of the former president, offering a cinematic picture of how Mr. Trump and his legal team thwarted the effort. retrieve documents.
When the Justice Department delegation arrived at Mar-a-Lago on June 3, one of Mr. Trump’s attorneys handed over a single Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape, explaining that the file was inside. coming from a storage room. Another lawyer – identified as Christina Bobb, according to people familiar with the matter – signed a letter of confirmation, the filing said, vowing that “a careful search” had been conducted and all All classified documents on the property have been transferred.
But when the delegation attempted to visit the archives room, records say, one of the attorneys “explicitly forbade” the officials to open or look at any other boxes there. That, the filing said, prevented them from confirming that no documents with the classification mark were left behind.
Investigators soon discovered evidence – possibly from interviews with witnesses – that classified documents remained at Mar-a-Lago. Ultimately, the filing said, the Justice Department believes government records may have been “hidden and removed from the archives” and that efforts may have been made “to obstruct the investigation.” government”.
It seems it was that belief that led to the August 8 raid of Mar-a-Lago. As the Justice Department candidly pointed out, when the FBI searched the assets, agents made their discovery quickly. number of confidential documents. Mr. Trump’s lawyers handed over the handover after a “diligent search” in June – including three who were found not in the locker room but on desks in the former president’s office.
It is not uncommon for prosecutors conducting investigations to reveal new details – even striking ones – in court records. But Tuesday night’s Justice Department filing specifically aims to refute what senior law enforcement officials describe as a false story about the Mar-a-Lago search that was leaked by Mr. Trump and his associates laid out in their court papers. and in the mass media.
John P. Fishwick Jr., an Obama appointee who served as US attorney for the West Virginia District and has criticized the department’s earlier, less extensive filings, said that the Justice Department had begun making changes. his tactics.
“They’re starting to understand that you don’t just need to talk to the judge with these records, you need to speak directly to the American people,” he said.
Over the past week, what was originally understood to be a heavily debated legal brief centered on opposing the appointment of a particular master’s has been expanded into something much broader, the official said. The filing has become further evidence that the Justice Department believes it has no choice but to seek a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.
In compiling the summary, officials said, one of the final – and most important – steps the department leadership took was to file it with the Federal District Court in Washington to have the two subpoenas set aside. jury court. One of the subpoenas, included in the filing, is for Mr. Trump to turn over documents at Mar-a-Lago. The other requested to record footage from surveillance cameras at the property to confirm the movement of certain materials.
Matthew Miller, a former spokesman for the Department of Justice, said the end product is the perfect distillation of Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s repeated belief that if the department needs to say something, then it should. This department should just talk through its profile.
“That’s the difference between Trump and the DOJ,” Miller said. “Trump kept saying things publicly that he couldn’t back up in court while the DOJ waited in the lawn and then showed up with a knockout.”
“And because Garland has been so cautious in his approach to work,” he added, “those punches are even tougher.”
