Former president Donald Trump on Monday filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to “immediately stop” the Department of Justice from reviewing materials seized in the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago until a special master can be appointed to oversee the case.
A special master is a neutral reviewer appointed by a judge to oversee litigation proceedings with the consent of the parties.
In a statement, Trump argued that the FBI seized documents that were covered by attorney-client and executive privilege, and demanded a full inventory of materials taken.
“They took my passports. They even brought a ‘safe cracker’ and successfully broke into my personal safe, which revealed…nothing!” the former president stated. He demanded that “all items wrongfully taken from my home be IMMEDIATELY returned.”
“We are now demanding that the Department of ‘Justice’ be instructed to immediately STOP the review of documents illegally seized from my home,” Trump continued. “ALL documents have been previously declassified.”
We are demanding the appointment of a SPECIAL MASTER to oversee the handling of the materials taken in the raid.
We are further demanding that the DOJ be forced to turn over a REAL, without “plants,” inventory of my property that was taken and disclose where that property is now located. We are demanding that all items wrongfully taken from my home be IMMEDIATELY returned.
The wrongful, overbroad warrant was signed by a Magistrate Judge who recused himself just two months ago, from a MAJOR civil suit that I filed, because of his bias and animus toward me.
This Mar-a-Lago Break-In, Search, and Seizure was illegal and unconstitutional, and we are taking all actions necessary to get the documents back, which we would have given to them without the necessity of the despicable raid of my home, so that I can give them to the National Archives until they are required for the future Donald J. Trump Presidential Library and Museum.
By filing the motion, Trump said he was “strongly” asserting his rights under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution “regarding the unnecessary, unwarranted, and unAmerican Break-In by dozens of FBI agents, and others, of my home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida.”
In January, National Archives officials retrieved 15 boxes of records that had been stored at Mar-a-Lago, then, in June, federal agents visited Mar-a-Lago to search for additional materials. Then, on August 8, the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, to retrieve alleged classified documents.
Trump says he declassified all of the material before he left the White House.
Judge Bruce Reinhart on Monday formally rejected the Justice Department’s argument to keep the FBI’s search affidavit under seal, noting that the raid was unprecedented, and of “intense public and historical interest.”
Reinhart gave the DOJ until Thursday to submit the affidavit, which is expected to be heavily redacted.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy predicted on Fox News Monday afternoon that the DOJ would produce a “highly, highly redacted document,” and the court would probably push back on that.
“They’ll go back and forth over how much it will be safe to disclose without blowing aspects of their investigation,” he explained. “I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a decision on Thursday.”
BREAKING: Trump sends Regime into PANIC— Files MASSIVE 4th Amendment motion after FBI RAIDS his home pic.twitter.com/9Rqp40V0A6
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 22, 2022