Trump’s legal team responds to DOJ in dispute over review of seized records

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Wednesday responded to the Justice Department in the dispute over Trump’s request for a “special master” to review materials the FBI seized at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Judge Aileen Cannon is set to hear arguments on the matter at a court hearing at 1p.m. Thursday.

Trump’s lawyers say the review is needed to deal with matters involving potentially privileged materials, including both attorney-client and executive privilege.

But the Justice Department has said a previously-established filter team has already finished its review of potentially attorney-client privilege materials that were seized in the raid. They have also urged Judge Cannon to reject any claims by Trump of executive privilege over the items, noting that his status as a former president means he has no right to continue to possess the documents.

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The Trump legal team’s latest filing, however, doesn’t appear to advance new arguments or provide new information in the case.

Trump’s answer comes one day after the Justice Department late Tuesday laid out in extraordinary detail their efforts to obtain highly classified records they allege were improperly stored at Mar-a-Lago since Trump’s departure from the White House, and the resistance — which they describe outright as obstructive conduct — that they were met with by Trump’s representatives

In their Wednesday response, Trump’s team took umbrage at the government’s approach but did not directly address that narrative of resistance and shifting statements on the documents.

His attorneys, again, have not made any claims in court that he declassified the documents seized by the government, though he has claimed that in public statements — without providing proof.

In their conclusion, Trump’s attorneys bristled at what they called a “gratuitously included” photo taken by federal authorities of classified documents they say were taken from Trump’s property.

Before the latest filings, Cannon had indicated she was leaning toward granting a request from Trump’s lawyers to appoint a special master to intervene in the ongoing review of documents.

ABC News