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Justice Department opposes independent expert review of documents seized from Donald Trump

He claims that the former president committed a crime of "obstruction" for the handling of classified documents in his possession.

Donald Trump

Gage Skidmore/ Flickr

Published by
Verónica Silveri Pazos

Former President Donald Trump claimed in a court filing that the documents found in his Mar-a-Lago mansion were in a secure location and that it was to be expected that among the files there was classified material because they were presidential records.

Trump's lawyers made these arguments during the trial in which the Department of Justice (DoJ) used an image as part of the impeachment evidence showing the files on the floor. The DoJ asserts that the former president committed a crime of "obstruction" for handling classified documents.

The judge's decision

Trump filed a lawsuit demanding that an independent expert witness be appointed to review the materials seized by the FBI, alleging that his constitutional rights had been violated in the raid on his Mar-a-Lago home.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) opposes this request, as the former president's claim "fails on multiple and independent grounds." According to federal prosecutors, it would "harm national security interests" because some of the documents found in a search were "likely concealed and removed" from a storage facility:

The DOJ has evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from a storage locker at Mar-a-Lago and that efforts were likely made to obstruct the government's investigation.

Judge Aileen Cannon, who is handling the case, has been willing to appoint an expert witness to oversee the Mar-a-Largo search, but before making a decision she will hear from the parties.

Controversial photo used as evidence

Trump criticized on Truth Social the image submitted by the Department of Justice showing the files with the words Secret and Top secret. The former president claimed that he had declassified all the documents in the photo and criticized the way the FBI dumped the records on the floor:

Terrible the way the FBI, during the Mar-a-Lago raid, randomly threw documents all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me who did it!). And then began to take pictures of them for the public to see. Did they think they wanted to be kept secret? Lucky I declassified it!
What the FBI found when the broke into my home, the took them out of cartons and spread then aroun on the carpet, making it look like a big find fot them.

Trump's lawyers have consistently avoided using the former president's argument that "they're all declassified."

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