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President Donald Trump’s legal team filed a legal brief Monday morning, urging the court to uphold the original ruling for a special master to examine documents the FBI removed from Mar-a-Lago.
According to ABC News, federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon last week to consider staying part of her ruling that would prevent the Justice Department from reviewing roughly 100 documents labeled “classified.”
Trump quickly responded to the FBI’s and DOJ’s plans to appeal the judge’s ruling concerning a special master, blasting the nation’s justice system for pushing what he called the “Raid of Mar-a-Lago Document Hoax.”
The legal brief called the FBI’s investigation of a U.S. president “both unprecedented and misguided.” Trump’s lawyers said neither the court nor “anyone else for that matter” could accurately decide which documents should be examined by the Justice Department “without first conducting a thoughtful, organized review.”
While federal prosecutors have argued that delaying the FBI’s investigation of Trump’s documents seized from Mar-a-Lago could present “irreparable harm,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, “The Government’s claims of ‘irreparable harm’ to the Government ‘and the public’ [ECF No. 69 at 2] appear exaggerated.”
Trump’s team encouraged the court to deny the government’s appeal because “the merits of this matter do not support staying the Court’s Order pending the Government’s appeal.”
Regarding the FBI’s seizure of the 45th president’s personal medical records as well as other personal documents, Trump’s legal brief stated, “The material seized from President Trump’s home includes not just ‘personal effects without evidentiary value’ but also approximately five hundred pages of material that is likely subject to attorney-client privilege, as well as medical documents, and tax and accounting information.”
Trump’s legal team argues there is “a risk of irreparable injury to President Trump” if a special master is not allowed to review the seized documents prior to the FBI’s continued investigation.
Contrary to what the Justice Department has claimed, Trump’s legal team said the judge provided “more than adequate reasoning” for a special master to review the documents. They stressed the importance of a “neutral third party” to complete a fair and thorough review without political motivations.
The legal brief concluded, “For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiff respectfully requests that the Court deny the Government’s motion for a partial stay pending appeal.”
