Trump's lawyers suggest seized documents may not be classified

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Lawyers for former president Donald Trump filed court papers Monday arguing against any pause in a judge’s order for a special master to review documents seized at Mar-a-Lago last month, suggesting that some of the documents in question may not be classified and that Trump may have the right to keep them in his possession.

“In what at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control, the Government wrongfully seeks to criminalize the possession by the 45th President of his own Presidential and personal records,” the Trump lawyers wrote, arguing that prosecutors are trying to limit any outside review of “what it deems are ‘classified records’.”

The filing was in response to the Justice Department’s request for U.S. District Court Judge Aileen M. Cannon to temporarily suspend parts of her ruling appointing a special master to review the contents of more than two dozen boxes and other items seized at Trump’s club and residence on Aug. 8. Federal prosecutors have asked that the judge withhold her prior ruling that the FBI not use the more than 100 classified documents seized in the search until they are reviewed by an outside legal expert.

The government also asked Cannon to exempt the classified documents from review by the outside expert, known as a special master, saying that requiring such a review would unnecessarily complicate the national security issues in the high-profile case. In the new filing, Trump’s lawyers disagree, charging that prosecutors are overstating the national-security concerns and that “there is no indication any purported ‘classified records’ were disclosed to anyone.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/12/trump-classified-special-master/

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No paywall link

[Walleye]

1. First, they are not his own presidential records.We made a law about that after Nixon

Second “there’s no indication that any classified records were disclosed to anyone?” That doesn’t make sense, are they saying he did have classified records and just didn’t share of them, besides where is the indication that he didn’t disclose anything, the way he was moving boxes around

[Justice matters.]

9. There is a process for what they "claim" and still no evidence (and there won't be any).

Bill Nash
@billndotnet

Declassification by a president happens one of two ways: The president discloses something classified publicly/to media, or orders the responsible agencies to declassify it. There's a whole process for it: https://justice.gov/oip/blog/foia-update-executive-order-12958-classified-national-security-information

If Trump declassified docs, where's the order?

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. This will be fun to watch

TFG's attorneys have responded to the DOJ Motion for Partial Lift of Stay and these idiots have doubled down on the concept that TFG still owns the classified documents

Link to tweet

It seems that TFG's attorneys want to confuse the issue of access to the documents vs. possession

Link to tweet

I have not yet read the full filing

[Scrivener7]

4. I think it won't be fun, because actual law will have nothing to do with this judge's ruling.

Nor with the court it is appealed to.

[emulatorloo]

8. Not so sure about that. Plenty of Trump judges ruled against his ridiculous 'stolen election'

lawsuits. Even the SCOTUS ruled Trump doesn’t have executive privilege back in January.

Of course Cannon is a hopeless case.

Anyway my fingers are crossed.

[emulatorloo]

5. Thanks for posting this. Cutesy Chris Kise is going to need a lawyer before this is over.

Can’t wait until Chris Kise‘s reputation is totally destroyed. He is an idiot for tying himself to Trump and spinning his bullshit.

[emulatorloo]

3. No, Trump and his lawyers have 'spiraled out of control.'

Looking forward to the day when these legal liars are disbarred. Especially the new one, who is a DeSantis ally.

[underpants]

6. Consider the source - Trumps C-League (at best) lawyers

They’ve screwed stuff up in ways no one saw coming. They are a joke. Sounds like stalling and just providing Fox and talk radio talking points.

[Walleye]

10. It's been revealing to see how many craven incompetent lawyers exist in this country

[emulatorloo]

11. Looking forward to when Chris Kise's reputation is in tatters. Like Guliani's.

What goes around comes around.

[Botany]

7. Good luck with that argument

[Walleye]

13. I'm glad they released that photo

[hibbing]

12. "document storage dispute"

I love this language trying to minimize the lawbreaking.

Peace

[forgotmylogin]

31. "a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control"

It isn't much different than saying a bank robbery is "a money storage dispute that spiraled out of control".

[BlueIdaho]

14. Throw enough shit against the wall

And you will eventually piss off the judge.

[hedda_foil]

15. Not this judge, I'm afraid. She'll lap it up and find for the Manchurian Cantaloupe.

[BlueIdaho]

22. I'm not so sure.

This loose Cannon has a future, TFG doesn’t.

[SuperCoder]

16. How much of this horse crap do we have to go through

Before this dirtbag is arrested and thrown in prison?

[maxsolomon]

27. More is the simplest answer.

An infinity of it is the more depressing answer.

He may be indicted on one charge or another, but he won't be thrown in prison, and he will never shut up until he's in his grave.

[SouthernDem4ever]

34. been praying for that since his first impeachment

that's why I still definitively believe there is no god.

[Happy Hoosier]

17. Does not matter.

It's like these idiots didn't even read the brief. The whole point of limiting the stay request to documents marked as classified (note the brief didn't even say they WERE classified, just that they had the markings), is to establish that they were, without any doubt, GOVERNMENT property. Trump has no claim of personal posession or pirvilege of any kind over such documents.

[Justice matters.]

20. But corrupt Aileen QAnnon doesn't care about the rule of law.

Still waiting to be proven wrong...

Oh, and she doesn't care about the National Security of the United States of America either.

[Happy Hoosier]

24. You may be right... but...

If she denies DOJ's request, it will make it very hard for higher level courts to blow off this argument with any credibility. Of ocurse, it's possible that the courts are already corrupted beyond redemption, but let's hope not.

[Demsrule86]

35. No it won't. It is likely the 11th will blow the master bullshit up IMHO.

[tinrobot]

18. That Picasso painting I took may not be a real Picasso.

Who cares, it's still not yours.

You stole it.

[appleannie1]

19. Classified or not, they do not belong to him.

They are the property of the National Archives. He does not get to keep stolen property that he stole. That would be like a bank robber claiming he should get to keep half of the money he stole.

[J_William_Ryan]

21. Trump's lawyers

are as corrupt and as dishonest as Trump.

[Joinfortmill]

23. I don't think it matters. They don't belong to him.

[Chainfire]

25. I don't know much about the legal system, but if some of the documents submitted by the prosecution

in a criminal case, were deemed by the Trump team to be "protected by some privilege" wouldn't that be challenged and decided, on a case by case basis, at trial?

[getagrip_already]

26. lol, by definition, if the government claims they are classified, they are...

It really doesn't matter if they were previously classified. The govt has the power to classify documents.

As an analyst, if I come into posession of a document that isn't classified, but determine it relates to material that is, I could classify it merely by labelling it and listing it.

So if the gov't says doc's are classified - they are. It doesn't matter what they were, they are classified upon declaration.

Suck on it.

[Novara]

28. Still throwing shit at the wall and hoping it sticks, I see

Seems that if this were the case, that would have been the FIRST defense, not the LATEST in an ever-changing forestalling dance of idiocy.

[onetexan]

30. throwing ketchup, but it's the same crap :)

The DOJ just needs to go ahead & charge the Con. They're just rolling over it seems, and letting him drive the narrative while he's guilty as sin.

[appleannie1]

29. US CODE 18 Chapter 101

Says it does not matter whether it is classified or not. Having possession is punishable by up to 3 years in prison and a fine or both and shall be disqualified from running for ANY government office in future.

(a)Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
(b)Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As used in this subsection, the term “office” does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

32. Trump team takes aim at records probe; calls it 'misguided'

WASHINGTON (AP) — A criminal investigation into the presence of top-secret information at former President Donald Trump's Florida home has “spiraled out of control," his lawyers said Monday in urging a judge to leave in place a directive that temporarily halted core aspects of the Justice Department's probe.

The Trump team also referred to the documents that were seized as “purported” classified records, suggesting his lawyers do not concede the Justice Department's contention that highly sensitive, top-secret documents were found by the FBI in its Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. The lawyers also asserted that there is no evidence any of the records were ever disclosed to anyone, and that at least some of the documents belong to him and not to the Justice Department.

The 21-page filing underscores the significant factual and legal disagreements between lawyers for Trump and the U.S. government as the Justice Department looks to move forward with its criminal investigation into the illegal retention of national defense information at Mar-a-Lago and into the potential obstruction of that probe.

The investigation hit a roadblock last week when U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon granted the Trump team's request for the appointment of an independent arbiter, also known as a special master, to review the seized records and prohibited for now the department from examining the documents for investigative purposes.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-lawyers-call-mar-lago-141353167.html

[Mysterian]

33. Ahhhhhh....the "alternative facts" defense

The lawyers should be disbarred.

[Evolve Dammit]

36. "Who you gonna believe? Me, or your own lyin' eyes"?? Lock Him Up already

[SoFloDenny]

37. Which documents un-classified?

The documents he took and refused to return or the documents the FBI planted and he refused to return?

[LudwigPastorius]

38. Trump's lawyers should be spending time figuring out how they're going to get paid, instead of...

pulling meaningless words out of their asses and submitting them to the court.

[Rhiannon12866]

39. As a private citizen, he has no right to government documents, classified or not!