Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys filed a new motion Wednesday, renewing calls for a special master to review documents seized in a search of his residence, which they say they will eventually argue was unconstitutional.
“Left unchecked, the DOJ will impugn, leak, and publicize selective aspects of their investigation with no recourse for Movant but to somehow trust the self-restraint of currently unchecked investigators,” the lawyers’ latest filing Wednesday read.
The motion used the “gratuitous” release of photos of the Mar-a-Lago search as proof the Department of Justice cannot be trusted with the handling of the documents seized from Trump’s home.
“A search warrant has been executed at the home of a president,” the motion read, laying out the circumstances. “It was conducted in the midst of the standard give-and-take between former presidents and NARA [National Archives and Records Administration] regarding presidential library contents, and with the Movant literally allowing DOJ lawyers and FBI investigators to come to his home and provide security advice.
“Soon after, and for the first time in history, an attorney general took to the podium to announce a willingness to unseal a warrant and property receipt, while eventually, and reluctantly, turning over a heavily redacted document that is more black than white.
“Even yesterday, the government’s response gratuitously included a photograph of allegedly classified materials, pulled from a container and spread across the floor for dramatic effect.”
Ultimately, because Trump was a U.S. president with authority over the documents from his administration, the lawyers argued, there was no “cause for alarm.”