In a 21-page document that repeated many of the right’s talking points but that experts said advanced little new legal evidence, officials accused the Biden administration of “looting” Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s Florida home. during an On August 8, the court authorized an FBI raid and politicization of the Justice Department. The investigation, which grew out of an investigation into whether Trump and his associates improperly received and withheld classified government documents, resulted in the discovery of numerous sensitive documents. Trump’s lawyers then asked a special master to review about 100 documents and exclude those that might be covered by attorney-client or executive privilege. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon agreed to the request and barred criminal investigators from using the footage until the review is complete. The Justice Department challenged parts of Cannon’s ruling and asked the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to overrule it. The amicus brief urges the appellate court to dismiss the appeal. “Given Biden’s track record, coupled with his rhetoric of demonizing dissent, courts should be alert to the ways in which [the Justice Department] may abuse his power to punish President Donald Trump,” Paxton, whose office led the effort, said in a statement Tuesday. Special Master Urges Trump Lawyers: ‘You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It’ The Utah Attorney General’s Office confirmed the state had joined the amicus brief, but declined to comment further. Representatives for the other attorneys general did not respond to requests for comment. Justice Department officials could not immediately be reached late Tuesday. Amicus briefs are documents filed by parties not directly involved in a legal contest to inform judges of additional, relevant information. But what was filed by the attorneys general looks more like a political document than a legal document, legal experts said. Attorneys general from Texas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia did not elaborate on the key legal issues Trump is challenging – executive privilege and whether the documents found at his Florida estate were in fact classified — according to John Yoo, a legal expert on executive privilege who reviewed the pension at the request of The Washington Post. The term “executive privilege” is mentioned only once in the filing, and the text does not provide new information that could help determine whether the government documents found on Trump’s property are classified. The privilege is typically used to protect executive branch communications by Congress or the courts, not by an agency within the branch itself, such as the Justice Department. Instead, GOP officials list a wide range of complaints against the Biden administration, including its handling of immigration enforcement and its response to the coronavirus pandemic, that do not appear to be directly related to the case. They argue that the administration’s “questionable behavior” in policymaking and litigation means courts should treat the Justice Department’s appeal with caution. The officials who signed the minutes are “really good lawyers,” said Yoo, who worked in the Justice Department of the George W. Bush administration. But the brief is a political document that “simply does not address any of the issues at stake,” he said. Analysis: A Mar-a-Lago briefing from GOP attorneys general is less than meets the eye Paxton has previously used his office to intervene in court on behalf of Trump and other right-wing causes. In 2020, Texas tried to sue Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania over the 2020 presidential election in a long-shot attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. The Supreme Court dismissed the case. The short one is “Obviously a political stunt,” said Jon D. Michaels, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who studies presidential powers. “Officials are playing with wild MAGA bases in their states,” he said. Paxton’s office could not immediately be reached for comment late Tuesday. Perry Stein and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.
