Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys said in a late Monday court filing that they don’t want to disclose which documents seized by the FBI during last month’s raid of residence had been declassified by Mr. Trump.
In a four-page letter to the newly appointed special master, the Trump legal team bristled at Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie’s proposal that they submit specific information regarding declassification to assist with his review.
Judge Dearie is examining the seized materials to see if any are protected by executive privilege or attorney-client privilege, which would make them off-limits to federal investigators probing whether Mr. Trump illegally mishandled classified information.
He has summoned both Mr. Trump’s lawyers and the Justice Department to Brooklyn, New York, for a preliminary conference later Tuesday on the matter.
In the letter, Mr. Trump’s legal team said that unless they decide to fight the FBI search warrant or offer the declassification process as a defense following a potential indictment, they shouldn’t have to disclose it. If Mr. Trump’s lawyers disclosed details about declassification, then that would also have to be shared with the Justice Department.
“The Special Master process will have forced the Plaintiff to fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment without such a requirement being evident in the District Court’s order,” Mr. Trump’s lawyers wrote.
U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon last week appointed Judge Dearie to serve as a special master, reviewing roughly 11,000 documents taken from Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. She ordered the longtime federal judge to wrap up his review by the end of November.
