In a remarkable admission on Monday, Trump’s lawyers acknowledged that the document search could lead to prosecution, arguing that any attempt to get Trump to explain now whether he declassified some of the seized documents would compel the former president “to disclose fully and specifically a defense to the substance of any subsequent indictment without such requirement being apparent in the District Court judgment.” In voicing that concern, lawyers at least acknowledged the possibility that the former president or his aides could face criminal charges in the case. Trump’s legal team has repeatedly suggested in court filings that the former president could have declassified the documents — but they haven’t actually argued that he did. Trump’s lawyers admit Mar-a-Lago case could lead to prosecution The newly appointed special master, federal judge Raymond J. Dearie, is examining the mechanics of how to review about 11,000 documents, about 100 of which have classified markings, obtained on Aug. 8 when FBI agents conducted a court-authorized search of Trump. residence and private club. His first meeting with the two parties started at 2pm on Tuesday. Prosecutors say the search was necessary to recover highly sensitive national security documents, after months of questioning by Trump’s legal team about what classified documents he had in his possession after leaving the White House and whether he had returned them all to the government. Officials say they are investigating a variety of possible crimes, including the mishandling of national defense information and the concealment or destruction of government records. Trump’s lawyers accuse the Justice Department of trying to turn a record-keeping dispute with the National Archives into a criminal case. U.S. District Court Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump appointee, granted Trump’s request for a special master — a neutral third-party legal expert — to review the seized documents to determine which may be covered by claims attorney-client privilege or a more vague and contested claim of executive privilege. After Cannon appointed Dearie as a special master, Dearie ordered both sides to appear in his courtroom on Tuesday to talk about mechanisms for reviewing the documents — even as the Justice Department appeals parts of Cannon’s order . Prosecutors asked the high court to stay Cannon’s ruling that Dearie should review classified as well as unclassified documents and that the FBI and Justice Department cannot use classified documents as part of their criminal investigation until the special main review is ongoing. On Tuesday, Trump’s legal team responded to that argument, reiterating its suggestion that prosecutors may be wrong about whether the 100 documents at the heart of the case are classified. “The Government again assumes that the documents it claims are classified are in fact classified and their separation is inviolable. However, the administration has yet to prove this critical fact,” the Trump brief argues. The Washington Post reported that among the classified material the FBI recovered from Mar-a-Lago was a document outlining a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, according to people familiar with the investigation, who spoke under the term of anonymity. describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation. Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations that are so closely guarded that only the president, certain members of his cabinet, or A near-cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details about them, these people said. Files dealing with such programs are kept locked away, almost always in a secure information facility, with a designated controller to keep a close eye on their location. Barrett reported from Washington.
