Trump’s lawyers on Monday hit back at Biden’s corrupt Justice Department in the fight over ‘classified’ documents stored at Mar-a-Lago.
The Justice Department last Thursday appealed Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling for a special master to review documents seized by the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago.
“Notice is hereby given that the United States of America. Defendant in the above-captioned matter, appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from the order of the district court entered on September 5, 2022.” the DOJ attorney wrote.
Trump’s legal team on Monday asked the judge to keep in place her stay that blocked Biden’s DOJ from reviewing the documents seized by the FBI last month.
President Trump’s legal team called the DOJ’s latest attack “unprecedented and misguided” in a 21-page filing.
“In what at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control, the Government wrongfully seeks to criminalize the possession by the 45th President of his own Presidential and personal records,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.
“Classified or declassified, the documents remain either Presidential records or personal records under the PRA,” Trump’s legal team wrote.
Politico reported:
“[T]he Government has not proven these records remain classified,” Trump attorney Christopher Kise and other lawyers for the former president wrote. “That issue is to be determined later.”
The filing also notes that Trump designated some of the records as his “personal” property, a broad designation power accorded to sitting presidents, meant to segregate records that have no value to the government.
“To the extent President Trump may have categorized certain of the seized materials as personal during his presidency, any disagreement as to that categorization is to be resolved under the [Presidential Records Act] and cannot possibly form the basis for any criminal prosecution,” Kise wrote.
Trump’s attorneys lean heavily on a 2012 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson – once derided by Trump for her handling of the criminal trial of Roger Stone. Jackson, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, dismissed a lawsuit trying to force the National Archives to claim ownership of audio recordings retained by former President Bill Clinton of interviews he did with journalist Taylor Branch.
Jackson ruled presidents have broad discretion to designate records such as the recordings as “personal,” with little, if any, recourse for the government or the public over those decisions, even though the 1978 law requires such personal records to be those without ongoing decision-making value for the Executive Branch.
Biden’s DOJ chose a Democrat donor to serve as the special master in this case.
Judge Barbara Jones, a Bill Clinton appointee is a Democrat donor who approved the raids on Rudy Giuliani and Victoria Toensing’s homes.
via thegatewaypundit