Trump Reportedly Sues US Federal Government Over Search And Seizure Warrant, Demands So-Called Special Master To Review Seized Documents

He's officially as desperate as it gets.


629
629 points

It seems the ex-president’s fear and desperation have finally reached a pathetic fever pitch.

In the days and weeks since the bombshell raid against his Mar-a-Lago compound that he now calls home in his post-White House days, Donald Trump has been heavy on the various excuses as to why he was holding numerous boxes of confidential, top-secret, federally-protected documents and materials at his country club that the FBI was forced to seize during a search warrant raid handed down from the Justice Department after Trump and his people failed to turn them all over in connection to the subpoenas issued against him. Thus far, his excuses for his actions have ranged from claims that he declassified the information before moving it with him to his Palm Beach compound, to claims that he took the top-secret documents with him to serve as source material for his supposed upcoming memoir.

But now, as the walls continue to close in all around him, it seems Trump has switched gears from lobbing out random excuses to literally suing the United States federal government.

According to reporting from CNBC, former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, demanding that a federal judge appoint a so-called special master (watchdog) to review the documents that were seized by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump’s demands for a special watchdog on the case are part of a larger effort, via the lawsuit, to prevent the Biden Department of Justice from further reviewing any of the material that was taken by Trump from the White House and later seized during the raid.

Trump has specifically stated that a federal judge should block the DOJ from “further review of seized materials,” hailing from the raid that he suggests was politically motivated in his lawsuit, until such a point when his requested special master has been appointed.

CNBC reports, “Special masters are appointed in criminal cases when there is a concern that some material seized by authorities should not be viewed by investigators because it is protected by attorney-client privilege or other concerns that weigh against it being used in a prosecution.”

Donald Trump’s lawsuit ultimately centers around his claim that the federal government violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures in connection to the Mar-a-Lago raid. According to current knowledge, the search and seizure warrant executed against Trump’s compound was the first of its kind against a former US president in US history.

The ex-president’s lawsuit referred to the Mar-a-Lago raid as “a shockingly aggressive move,” executed by about two dozen FBI agents, and “with no understanding of the distress that it would cause most Americans.”

“Law enforcement is a shield that protects Americans. It cannot be used as a weapon for political purposes,” the new lawsuit reads. “Therefore, we seek judicial assistance in the aftermath of an unprecedented and unnecessary raid on President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago.”

“Politics cannot be allowed to impact the administration of justice. President Donald Trump is the clear frontrunner in the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary and in the 2024 General Election, should he decide to run.”

The suit goes on to claim that the US government told the ex-president’s legal team that “privileged and/or potentially privileged documents” were seized in the raid before alleging that the government, to date, has “refused to provide any information regarding the nature of these documents.”

This story is breaking and will be updated as more information becomes available.

Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0

Can’t get enough Political Tribune? Follow us on Twitter!

Looking for more video content? Subscribe to our channel on YouTube!



Comments