Trump Sues Over FBI Mar-a-Lago Raid, Wants FBI to Stop Reviewing Recovered Documents
PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government on Monday over the FBI’s search of his Florida mansion, in an effort to stop law enforcement from reviewing the documents seized at his private home.
The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago two weeks ago to retrieve top secret classified documents Trump allegedly attempted to retain despite multiple attempts by law enforcement to secure them.
Trump’s lead attorney, Jim Trusty, previewed the filing to the Guardian on Sunday, saying, “the suit argues that the court should appoint a special master – usually a retired lawyer or judge – because the FBI potentially seized privileged materials in its search and the Department of Justice (DoJ) should not itself decide what it can use in its investigation.”
The filing, made in the southern district of Florida, also “requires the government to provide a more detailed receipt for property; and … requires the government to return any item seized that was not within the scope of the search warrant.”
Trump released a lengthy statement on Monday announcing the suit.
“We have just filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida strongly asserting my rights, including under the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution, regarding the unnecessary, unwarranted, and unAmerican Break-In by dozens of FBI agents, and others, of my home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida,” the statement sent out by Trump’s Save America PAC read.
“They demanded that the security cameras be turned off, a request we rightfully denied. They prevented my attorneys from observing what was being taken in the raid, saying ‘absolutely not.’ They took documents covered by attorney-client and executive privilege, which is not allowed,” Trump alleged. The Presidential Records Act does in fact include and account for documents that may fall under executive privilege to be retained and cataloged by the national archives.
“They took my passports. They even brought a ‘safe cracker’ and successfully broke into my personal safe, which revealed…nothing!” Trump fumed.
“We are now demanding that the Department of ‘Justice’ be instructed to immediately STOP the review of documents illegally seized from my home. ALL documents have been previously declassified,” Trump claimed, despite the federal warrant revealing 11 sets of top secret documents were recovered from Trump’s residence.
