In an unprecedented move, former US President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the justice department from unsealing files seized from his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month.
The FBI, while executing a search warrant, had carried off eleven sets of files believed to contain classified information belonging to the National Archive.
In the lawsuit, Trump’s legal team asked that an independent lawyer be appointed to oversee documents.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
According to court papers filed on Monday in a federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump’s lawyers are asking that a third-party attorney – known as a special master – be appointed to determine whether the files are shielded under presidential privileges.
“It is unreasonable to allow the prosecutorial team to review them without meaningful safeguards,” the 27-page document argues.
“Short of returning the seized items… only a neutral review by a special master can protect the ‘great public interest’ in preserving ‘the confidentiality of conversations that take place in the president’s performance of his official duties.'”
Special masters are usually appointed in criminal cases where there are concerns that some evidence may be protected under attorney-client privilege or other protections that could make it inadmissible in court.
Trump, facing series of investigations tied to his private businesses and his activities while in the Oval office, has described the FBI search as part of the political “witch hunt” that started during his time as president. Trump asked investigators to note how many items that were taken from his home and return any items outside the scope of the search warrant.
“Politics cannot be allowed to impact the administration of justice,” the filing says. “Law enforcement is a shield that protects Americans. It cannot be used as a weapon for political purposes,” it added.
In response to Trump’s lawsuit, Anthony Coley, spokesperson to the Department of Justice said prosecutors would respond in court.
The “search warrant at Mar-a-Lago was authorized by a federal court upon the required finding of probable cause”, he said.
Trump’s request was assigned in West Palm Beach to US District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, whom he appointed to the bench in 2020.
Trump is being investigated for taking classified documents belonging to the National Archive home. Times reported on Monday that more than 300 classified files in 26 boxes, including those labeled “top secret”, have been recovered from the former president since January, according to sources familiar with them. They said the initial batch of archives retrieved by the National Archives from the former president was 150, which triggered suspicion and consequently, the investigation.
However, Trump has continued to play victim. In his court filing, the 45th president of the United States repeated his claim that the FBI raid was a politically motivated effort to block his potential presidential ambitions in 2024, and the election prospects of other Republican candidates for November’s midterm congressional races.
The “shockingly aggressive move” on Mar-a-Lago by about two dozen FBI agents took place “with no understanding of the distress that it would cause most Americans”, said Trump’s lawyers.
The filing added that the justice department “simply wanted the camel’s nose under the tent so they could rummage for either politically helpful documents or support efforts to thwart president Trump from running again”.
Trump lawyers are arguing, according to court documents, that the search violated the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects Americans against unreasonable search and seizure.
Under the Presidential Records Act, all official material remains government property and has to be provided to the archives at the end of a president’s term.
In June, after the visit of the Justice Department to Mar-a-Lago, Trump aides turned in dozens of other sets of classified documents. Now the DOJ is concerned that they could be more.