Donald Trump has consistently failed, according to the DOJ, to demonstrate that he declassified official documents that were obtained from his Florida property. The DOJ is looking to resume its assessment of documents designated classified that were taken during an FBI raid from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. Regarding the subject of declassification, Special Master Raymond Dearie has expressed distrust toward Trump's attorneys.
Donald Trump, a former president of the United States, delivers the keynote lecture at the Faith & Freedom Coalition's annual "Road To Majority Policy Conference" on June 17, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. Following the third court meeting by the House committee looking into the attack on our U.S. Capitol, Trump made appearances.
The Department of Justice informed a federal appeals court that Donald Trump's lawyers have consistently failed to demonstrate that the former president declassified official documents that were confiscated from his Florida home as part of a criminal investigation. The Justice Department made that claim late on Tuesday as it sought to begin its review of documents marked classified that had been taken during an FBI raid last month from Trump's Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach.
The DOJ hit back in a filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit at Trump's attorneys' earlier Tuesday request for the court to uphold a lower federal judge's decision prohibiting the government from reviewing the seized records. According to federal prosecutors, Trump "again implies that he might have declassified the records before leaving office."
But as before, they said of Trump, "Plaintiff noticeably fails to convey, much less show, that he actually took that step. "Trump "is now rejecting," according to the DOJ lawyers, a court-appointed special master's demand that he show proof of declassifying data that were confiscated. The authorities contended that the plaintiff's attempt to cast doubt on the validity of the classification was a red herring. There would still be no rationale for restricting the government's use of evidence at the focus of an ongoing criminal investigation, even if Plaintiff could demonstrate that he declassified the records in question.
The appointment of the special master, an impartial third party who would examine the thousands of records to find private information that might be shielded by various legal rights, had been approved by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. In accordance with that decision, Cannon temporarily barred the DOJ from looking over or utilizing the material it had obtained as part of its criminal investigation. In its appeal, the DOJ requested that the 11th Circuit overturn the portion of Cannon's decision that prohibited the use of government information with classification marks and demanded that the government provide such records to the special master.
Tuesday afternoon in Brooklyn, attorneys for Trump and the DOJ showed up for a meeting with the special master, U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie. Trump chose him for the position, and Cannon, who was also a Trump nominee, appointed him. But at the court hearing on Tuesday, Dearie expressed doubt toward Trump's attorneys on whether any of the records that had been taken from Mar-a-Lago had been declassified, according to NBC News. According to Dearie, the DOJ has provided "prima facie proof" that the documents with a classified designation are actually classified. "As far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it," Dearie added, unless Trump's attorneys could present proof to refute that assertion.
On August 8, the FBI conducted a raid at Mar-a-Lago in search of evidence of potential transgressions of the U.S. Espionage Act as well as statutes prohibiting the destruction of government records and obstructing the course of justice. In the operation, more than 100 documents with classified markings were taken by federal officials, the DOJ later disclosed. Additionally, according to court records, the FBI discovered four dozen empty folders with the label "CLASSIFIED" during the operation. According to Dearie on Tuesday, 11,000 documents are under question.
In interviews and on social media, Trump and his supporters have claimed that they declassified every document taken from Mar-a-Lago. But in court, the ex-attorneys president's have not backed up that assertion. They argued that a president "has ultimate right to declassify any information" on Tuesday, telling the appeals court that the DOJ has not demonstrated that the records are classified. The fact that the documents have classified markings does not necessarily disprove privilege claims, Trump's attorneys acknowledged in a footnote. They cited the fact that several records with classified markings also contain Trump's handwritten notes, according to the probable cause affidavit used to secure the Mar-a-Lago search warrant.
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