Trump also asked, in a memorandum submitted to a federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, the US Department of Justice to give him a more detailed receipt identifying items seized by the FBI from his home in Mar-a-Lago during an August 8 search. He demanded that investigators return any items outside the scope of the search warrant.
“Politics cannot be allowed to influence the administration of justice. Law enforcement is a shield that protects Americans and cannot be used as a weapon for political ends,” the request said.
Sometimes a special expert on highly sensitive cases can be assigned to review confiscated materials, ensuring that investigators do not review private information.
When FBI agents searched the homes of Trump’s former lawyers, Michael Cohen and Rudy Giuliani, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office requested a special expert.
Trump’s request was referred to U.S. District Judge Eileen M. Cannon, who Trump had appointed to the court, and a Department of Justice spokesman said prosecutors would submit their response to the request to the court.
“A search warrant for the home in Mar-a-Lago was issued by a federal court on August 8, after establishing the necessary possible cause,” said spokesman Anthony Cooley.
Bruce Reinhart, the US District Judge in West Palm Beach who approved the search warrant, is considering whether to ask the Justice Department to release a copy of the injunction revealing the possible reason for the search of Trump’s home.
At last week’s hearing, the Justice Department rejected this, saying it would reveal a “roadmap” for its investigation, which could deter witnesses from cooperating.
The Aug. 8 search warrant for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home represents a clear escalation of one of the many federal investigations the former president is facing regarding his tenure and his own business ventures.
After Trump and his supporters complained in the media that the search was politically motivated, Attorney General Merrick Garland asked the court to issue a revised version of the search warrant and a receipt identifying the confiscated items.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing several people familiar with the matter, that the US government had recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, including materials from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency and the FBI. .
There was no immediate comment from the Justice Department, nor from Trump’s aides.
The search is part of a federal investigation into whether Trump illegally kept the documents when he left office in January 2021 after losing the presidential election to Joe Biden.
During its research, the FBI seized 11 sets of classified material in Mar-a-Lago, some of which were described as “top secret”, the highest level of confidentiality for the most sensitive US national security information, which can only be examined in special government facilities.
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