Donald Trump's Lawyers Resist Special Master's Order To Disclose Mar-a-Lago Documents Declassification

On Monday night, when asked to provide more information regarding the declassification of the documents allegedly taken from the former president's Mar-a-Lago residence last month, his legal team refused.

Trump's counsel claimed in a document submitted to the court-appointed special master that the time and place for making such a revelation would come in a move in a criminal prosecution as part of an effort to reclaim his property.

Trump Argues Against Explaining Declassification of Mar-a-Lago Docs

The opposition started after Trump's lawyers hinted that the former president had declassified the more than 300 documents found in his Florida home, but they didn't go into detail in court records.

In their subsequent submission, the attorneys for the Justice Department seized on the suggestion made by Trump's attorney. Although presidents have broad authority to declassify documents, doing so triggers a series of actions from the intelligence agencies that oversee such documents.

The standing declassification order that DonaldTrump has cited in his homily to explain the section of record in question was sought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts on Monday in a Freedom of Information Act request.

Donald Trump has fought to prevent the Justice Department from looking into the classified records, but the department has asserted that he has no legal claim to them, that they are government property rather than personal property, and that Trump has no justification for preventing the executive branch from looking into them, as per The Hill.

Prosecutors proposed in the brief that the records be uploaded to a third-party web platform so that the Trump team and prosecutors could assess the evidence concurrently.

The third-party vendor should batch out documents as they are scanned to both the prosecution and Trump's defense team, according to a suggestion from the Justice Department. Every business day, the lawyers should prepare to go through around 500 records, according to DOJ.

As soon as the review began, prosecutors advised Raymond Dearie to undertake monthly reviews with both parties in order to resolve difficulties and maintain flawless review operation.

Additionally, the agency announced that it will ask Cannon to approve a protective order that would make disclosing information about the seized collection subject to court contempt or any other lawfully authorized consequence that the Court considers appropriate.

Dearie wouldn't be able to examine the more than 100 papers marked classified if the 11th Circuit US Court of Appeals granted the DOJ's motion to prevent certain portions of Cannon's order requiring a special master, the DOJ stated in its petition, according to CNN.

Trump's Special Master Pick is "FBI Skeptic"

The nomination of Donald Trump's choice as special master to examine the records the FBI took from his Mar-a-Lago residence was good news for the former president as his legal team reportedly feels the candidate is skeptical of the agency.

Dearie was chosen as the special master to examine whether the records acquired from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort were unlawfully taken by the FBI after being recommended by the former president's legal team. Dearie previously worked on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. It is unclear why the ex-attorney would push for the appointment given that he has no obvious ties to or devotion to Trump.

Two persons with knowledge of the decision said that Trump's attorneys pushed for Dearie's nomination because they believed that Dearie's participation in the covert FISC made him skeptical of the FBI. According to the sources, Dearie's involvement in the surveillance warrants that were authorized in 2016 and 2017 to watch over Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, bolstered this theory.

Records that were taken from Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence will be examined to see if any of them breach executive or client privileges. The Justice Department's investigation into whether Trump violated the Espionage Act by stealing the documents from the White House may be delayed as a result of his nomination, Washington Examiner reported.