U.S. News
DOJ says classified docs at Mar-a-Lago were ‘likely concealed’ to obstruct probe [Video]
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- The Justice Department says it has found efforts to obstruct its investigation into the discovery of classified documents at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
- Trump’s lawyers had told the DOJ that classified documents were kept in the storage room but some were discovered on Trump’s office desks.
- The DOJ opposed Trump’s request for a special master to review documents taken from the estate.
The Justice Department said Tuesday that classified documents were “likely concealed and removed” from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an effort to obstruct the federal investigation into the discovery of the government records.
In a court filing Tuesday night, the DOJ laid out the most detailed chronology to date of interactions between Justice Department officials and Trump representatives over the presence of the documents at Mar-a-Lago.
The department says Trump’s lawyers told them in June that all the records that had come from the White House were stored in a storage room and that “there were no other records stored in any private office space or other location at the Premises and that all available boxes were searched.”
During the August 8 search, however, agents found classified documents both in the storage room as well as in the former president’s office — including three classified documents found not in boxes, but on office desks.
On Tuesday night’s filing, the department included a photo showing the cover pages of classified documents. Some were marked as “TOP SECRET/SCI” with a bright yellow border. They were photographed laying on a carpet at Mar-a-Lago alongside a box filled with framed pictures, which includes a Time Magazine cover.
Last week, Trump’s lawyers requested for the appointment of a special master who’d be tasked with reviewing the records taken and setting aside documents protected by claims of legal privilege.
On Monday, the DOJ said it had already completed its review of potentially privileged documents and identified a “limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information.” On Tuesday, the department said that a special master was, therefore “unnecessary.”
The DOJ argued in a court filing that Trump lacks the legal standing to appoint a special master. Appointing that watchdog could harm national security, the agency warned.
“As an initial matter, the former President lacks standing to seek judicial relief or oversight as to Presidential records because those records do not belong to him,” the DOJ wrote to Judge Aileen Cannon in U.S. District Court in southern Florida.
Trump-appointed Cannon has set a hearing for Thursday at 1 p.m. ET in a West Palm Beach courthouse. Trump’s lawyers has until Wednesday night to respond to the DOJ’s latest submission.
Chris Kise, Florida’s former solicitor general, has joined Trump’s legal team.
Source: CNBC
V Reagan
August 31, 2022 at 9:51 am
IRONIC DONT YOU THINK- BIDEN NOW COMING OUT TO SUPPORT THE POLICE- ADDING MORE- WHEN ALL ALONG HES NOT TOOK A STAND FOR YHE POLICE- ALLOWING ANTIFA- BLACK LIVES MATTER- TO DO THEIR THING?
ITS VOTING TIME AGAIN! WATCH ALL THE CHANGES HE IS GOING TO MAKE TO HOPEFULLY GET THE VOTERS ON BOARD. BEWARE PPL- BEWARE
Richard
September 1, 2022 at 11:47 am
Every changes he makes will be nothing but lies just like all his conference calls and he thinks we the people are so nieve to beleive him again and again.
November is just around the corner so he better be prepared for a devastating loss of the House and Senate.
We the people Dad enough.
Coolmeadow Kid
September 1, 2022 at 7:14 pm
I’m surprised they didn’t claim racism as the reason they couldn’t find anything. The first question I want to know from the DOJ is, ‘What proof do you have that anything was concealed?’ The second thing is ‘If your agents are that inept at shaking down a house for evidence when they could have stayed there for a week, doesn’t that prove the current thought that the FBI needs to be nuked and either started over with new rules or send their responsibilities to existing three letter agencies who CAN do an investigation?’ It sounds more to me like a 5 year old who got caught with their pants down and throws out the first excuse they can think of. Just watch….when that proves to be wrong, they’ll come out with another one. Maybe that’s when they’ll try the race card.
Eagle
September 1, 2022 at 8:29 pm
We know we can’t trust the FBI or DOJ and they could have easily planted the evidence they found. Biden’s boys are as corrupt as he is.
Fred
September 1, 2022 at 9:11 pm
If you believe this narrative from the FBI or DOJ, you’ll believe anything. You know, like men can have babies.
SandRat
September 2, 2022 at 7:58 pm
Documents “were likely concealed” is another way of saying the DOJ has no proof to support its false accusation. The problem for the DOJ is that they are made up of nothing but liars. This case is going nowhere. The DOJ has no proof of intent to break the law, and so they are doing noting but trying to divert attention from their bad “raid” decision and to cover for the worst President that has ever occupied the White House. The DOJ knows it, the media knows it, and now based on more DOJ BS and lies, the people know it too. I hope the conservatives take both the House and the Senate in the upcoming elections. And I also hope that in 20204, a conservative person is elected President of the US, and that his or her first act is to fire all the liars who occupy top positions in Department of Justice, or more accurately the Department of Injustice. Then the newly elected President should go after the IRS and clean house there as well.