Former American president, Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked a federal judge to prevent the FBI from continuing to review documents recovered earlier this month from Trump’s Florida home until a neutral panel of experts inspects the documents. Trump’s legal team included the request in a court filing on Monday, the first since the Mar-a-Lago search on 8 August, which aimed at the FBI investigation into the discovery of classified records.
Former GOP President Donald Trump asked a federal judge to let a neutral 3d party review documents that the FBI agents captured during the search of his Mar-a-Lago home and to order the DOJ to return those materials that are out of the warrant.#DonaldTrump #FBI #documents #DOJ pic.twitter.com/ihfIylOT40
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An investigator needs to return all items outside the scope of a search warrant, according to the motion filed in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida. Politics must not be allowed to influence the administration of justice, and the filing stated: “Law enforcement safeguards Americans.” It can’t prohibit to use it as an instrument of politics.”
In the filing, a special master is requested to inspect the records recovered from Mar-a-Lago and set aside those covered by executive privilege — a principle that allows presidents to keep certain communications from public disclosure — without being connected to the case. Occasionally, retired judges are appointed as special masters.
U.S. District Judge Aileen M Cannon
Public attention in the U.S. has been drawn to this issue. Providing merely “adequate” safeguards is not adequate when former President Trump’s constitutional rights are at stake along with his presumption of executive privilege,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. Aileen M Cannon, the judge the former president appointed, received the former president’s request on Monday.
A Justice Department spokesman said that attorneys intend to respond to the charges in court. In a statement, Mar-a-Lago spokesman Anthony Coley said a federal court authorized the search warrant on 8 August based on probable cause. During his time in office and private business, Trump has been the target of several federal and state investigations, including the search of Mar-a-Lago.
Source: Web
The raid was slammed as a witch hunt by Republican legislators. Government officials report that threats have also increased since then against FBI agents. Following Trump’s public allegation that the department was retaliating against him, Merrick Garland asked the court to release an edited copy of the search warrant and property receipt. In its search warrant, federal agents alleged that three different federal laws were being violated, including the Espionage Act, which governs the gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information.
In an unsealed property receipt, the FBI revealed that 11 sets of classified documents were seized from Mar-a-Lago, including some marked as top secret and other sensitive compartmented information. Furthermore, in that sense, the legal term refers to a special category of secret information meant to protect the nation’s most important secrets from being revealed publicly in a way that might harm U.S. interests in an “exceptionally grave” manner.