Mar-a-Lago Raid: Biden White House facilitated investigation against Trump

Despite claiming no knowledge of the FBI's actions, the current Administration undermined Trump's executive privilege. The former president, for his part, requested an independent review of the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago.

Registro Mar-a-Lago — Mar-a-Lago (Cordon Press)

Published by

Juan Carlos Téllez

23 de agosto, 2022

Topics:

The Biden White House facilitated the Department of Justice's (DOJ) criminal investigation against Trump and dismissed the former president's claims of privilege. As noted Just The News months before the Mar-a-Lago raid of which Joe Biden claimed no prior knowledge, the White House worked with the DOJ and the National Archives to instigate the judicial investigation into Trump's handling of official documents.

Several correspondences between Trump's lawyers and members of the Biden Administration revealed that the federal government appeared willing to waive Trump's claims of executive privilege over documents Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago until earlier this year. Correspondence revealed by Just The News would prove White House involvement despite President Biden's claim that he was unaware of this process.

Executive privilege is a legal convention that, although not enshrined in the Constitution, allows presidents to protect the confidentiality of their work during their term of office. President Biden, however, allowed officials to discard this privilege of confidentiality. Speaking to Just The News, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz noted that the Biden White House's eagerness to waive Trump's claims of privilege could have future implications for generations of presidents to come.

The current president should not be able to waive the executive privilege of a predecessor without the consent of the former president. Otherwise, [el privilegio] means nothing. What president is going to discuss something in private if he knows the man who beat him can and will reveal it.

Although some courts have advocated that a successor president waive the privilege of a predecessor, Dershowitz said the issue should be definitively decided by the Supreme Court.

Trump called for independent review of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago

Separately, the former president and his legal team filed a motion Monday requesting an independent review of the records seized by the FBI during the "unprecedented" raid on the Mar-a-Lago residence.

Donald Trump's lawyers asked that a third party be appointed as an expert witness to determine whether the seized files are covered by executive privilege, which allows presidents to withhold certain communications. They further requested that the Government return any items seized that were not within the scope of the search warrant.

The former president's legal team considered that the search of his private residence a few months before the mid-term elections "involved political calculations aimed at diminishing the leading voice of the Republican Party."

Here you can consult the motion filed by Donald Trump's lawyers:

gov.uscourts.flsd.618763.1.0 by VozMedia on Scribd

Donald Trump noted in filing the motion that he was "strongly" asserting his rights under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution "with respect to the unnecessary, unwarranted and un-American raid by dozens of FBI agents, and others, on my home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida."