Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday opposed a US Justice Department request to continue reviewing classified documents seized by the FBI during the agency's August raid on the former president's Mar-a-Lago estate.
Slamming the government investigation as “unprecedented and misguided”, Mr Trump's lawyers asked District Judge Aileen Cannon to uphold the assigning of a special master to review the roughly 100 classified documents and thousands of other records taken during the FBI's search.
“In what at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiralled out of control, the government wrongfully seeks to criminalise the possession by the 45th president of his own presidential and personal records,” his lawyers wrote in a court filing.
“The government should therefore not be permitted to skip the process and proceed straight to a preordained conclusion.”
Court records have shown that Mr Trump is being investigated for potentially violating three federal laws related to mishandling records after leaving office last year.
The Justice Department's investigation hit a snag last week when Ms Cannon granted Mr Trump's request to appoint a special master. The Justice Department has asked her to lift that hold and threatened to appeal her ruling to a federal appeals court.
The department said the investigation would be irreparably harmed if the order was not lifted.
In asking Ms Cannon to leave her order in place, Mr Trump's lawyers said it would be a “sensible preliminary step towards restoring order from chaos”.
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Supporters of former US president Donald Trump gather outside his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, after he said FBI agents raided it. Reuters -
A supporter of Mr Trump holds a flag and an old newspaper outside the former president's Mar-a-Lago home. Reuters -
The FBI searched the estate as part of an investigation into whether the former US leader took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence. The Palm Beach Post / AP -
Despite the January 6 hearings and an FBI raid, some still believe that Mr Trump won the 2020 election. AFP -
Supporters gathered outside Mar-a-Lago in Florida as it was was being searched by FBI agents in what Mr Trump called an act of 'prosecutorial misconduct'. AFP -
Trump supporters in Palm Beach, Florida outside Mar-a-Lago on Monday night. Reuters -
It is claimed that the former US president took documents from the White House and disposed of them at Mar-a-Lago. AFP -
Mr Trump was in New York when the search took place. Reuters -
Mr Trump alleges that no other president has been subjected to such treatment. AFP -
A member of the far-right Proud Boys group outside Mar-a-Lago. Reuters -
Mr Trump compared the FBI raid to Watergate. AFP
His lawyers also said there was no indication that any of the “purported records” had been disclosed to anyone.
The Justice Department has argued that Mr Trump does not have the right to a special master review. Appointing one would be unprecedented because the records belong to the government and not to him, prosecutors argued.
Mr Trump's lawyers contend that, as a former president, he has an “unfettered right” to presidential records.
Reuters contributed to this report
