George Conway Says It Was ‘Insane’ for Trump’s Lawyers to Request a Special Master: ‘Basically, They Asked for the DOJ to Punch Them in the Face’

George Conway reacted to the Department of Justice’s response to what he called an “insane” request filed by Donald Trump to appoint a special master to review the documents seized in the Aug. 8 search at Mar-a-Lago, saying that the former president’s attorneys had “basically asked for the Justice Department to punch them in the face.”

Earlier this month, Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the release of a redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant for Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, and that redacted affidavit was posted to the online court file last Friday.

The ex-president has gone through some very public struggles to retain a top-notch team of criminal defense attorneys, and the motion they filed on Aug. 22 in Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s court demanding that the DOJ’s review of the seized documents cease until a special master could be appointed raised a lot of eyebrows among legal experts, many of whom pointed out the thin legal arguments. The delay in filing of two weeks after the Aug. 8 search was especially notable with many commentators observing that the standard practice for attorneys who are legitimately trying to protect privileged documents is to file such motions as soon as possible.

The DOJ’s response to Trump’s motion was filed late Tuesday evening, and Conway was part of the panel on Don Lemon Tonight to share his reactions with host Don Lemon right after the motion had been filed.

Former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams highlighted a quote from the motion that the documents were “concealed and removed from the storage room [at Mar-a-Lago] and efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.” This  was “laying out the standard for 18 USC § 1519,” referring to the federal statute making it a crime to destroy, alter, or falsify documents, records, or other evidence “with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States.”

The motion made it clear, Williams continued, that the DOJ was “not talking here just about the sort of possession or even mishandling or destruction of documents,” but also about “trying to thwart the efforts of the Justice Department, or any other authorities, to carry out an investigation.”

This was not yet a formal criminal charge, Williams noted, but it was “serious” and “strong language, quite significant.”

“Why would Team Trump want this information out there?” Lemon asked Conway. “Why would they even ask for a special master, knowing what the evidence is?”

“It’s insane,” Conway replied. “They asked for — basically, they asked for the Justice Department to punch them in the face. And that is what the Justice Department did in this brief.”

The DOJ motion also included the certification from Trump’s lawyers claiming there were no more classified documents in response to the subpoena, Conway pointed out, but it turned out “there were documents in his office, there were documents all over the place. And tons of them! I mean, they have — this factual recitation has him dead to rights.”

“There is just no question about it,” he told Lemon, saying that it “explains a lot today about what we are seeing” about Trump’s furious reaction on Truth Social, his “social media platform that’s failing.”

“He was basically just freaking out all day, and the reason is this evidence,” concluded Conway. “This evidence shows, he is guilty as sin. He did this. He hid these documents, he had the lawyers lie about it. It’s incredible.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.