Trump lawyers say Mar-a-Lago’s redacted affidavit is ‘misleading’

Lawyers for former President Trump on Tuesday asked a federal judge to order the Justice Department to turn over an unredacted version of an affidavit used to justify the August search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

In a legal filing moments before Mr. Trump’s lawyers are set to argue the case in another court, his legal team said they must check the affidavit for accuracy and ” misleading omissions”.

“The so-called ‘detailed’ inventory provided little real information or detail. Instead, the ‘detailed’ inventory incorrectly labeled nearly every document seized as a ‘US government document,'” Mr. Trump’s lawyers wrote.

In August, a US magistrate released a partially redacted version of the affidavit.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers have also argued that there are “substantial” differences between the affidavit the Justice Department provided to the former president and the one they provided to the special master. The special master examines the documents seized during the FBI raid to see if they are protected by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege and, therefore, should be barred from federal investigators.

The 13-page legal filing says the government took “an enormous volume of personal and family photographs, journals, thank-you notes, campaign materials, books and golf shirts.”

“This raises serious questions about how the affiant characterized his assertion of probable cause and justification for the seizure of thousands of personal and private items,” Mr. Trump’s attorneys wrote.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In previous court documents, the Justice Department said there was nothing unusual about the seizure of personal items while executing a search warrant. He said unrelated items found in boxes containing relevant documents can be helpful to investigators.

Mr Trump’s legal team filed the motion with US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the case. Judge Cannon was appointed by Mr. Trump.

It’s unclear when Judge Cannon could make a decision in the case.

The filing came moments before other members of Mr. Trump’s legal team argued in the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta that the special master, Judge Raymond Dearie, should remain at his station to review documents seized in the August raid of Mr. Trump’s office. and residency at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Justice Department lawyers have asked the court to end Judge Dearie’s term, arguing that the review is unnecessary and that his work is delaying their investigation into whether Mr. Trump unlawfully mishandled government records .

It also came days after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the investigation into the documents as well as Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Mr. Trump denied wrongdoing in both cases.