Department of Justice squares off against Donald Trump’s team over FBI search at Mar-a-LagoThe Department of Justice has until tomorrow to present a “more detailed list” of items that were seized from former president Donald Trump’s club resort and residence, Mar-a-Lago, when the FBI searched the premises earlier this month.
Federal judge Aileen Cannon, in south Florida, has given the DoJ a deadline to produce the details as well as an update on the Biden administration’s review of the boxes of documents and other materials that were taken in that event on 8 August.
The search was part of a criminal investigation into the wrongful taking of “highly classified” government documents by Trump or his team and kept at Mar-a-Lago in exclusive Palm Beach after the Republican then-president’s single term ended on 20 January 2021.
View of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s private resort club and residence, where he has primarily lived since leaving office and where he spent a lot of time during winters of his presidency, sometimes meeting world leaders there. Photograph: Marco Bello/ReutersMeanwhile, Cannon will hold a hearing on Thursday in district court in West Palm Beach, south Florida, involving Trump’s request for the appointment of a so-called special master to conduct an independent review of what was seized in that FBI search.
Cannon appears inclined to approve such an appointment.
Last Friday, a redacted copy was released of the affidavit that underpinned the FBI’s application for the search warrant that preceded the search.
The search came following Trump’s handing over of multiple boxes from Mar-a-Lago prior to that visit by the FBI, which the DoJ revealed included hundreds of documents, including top secret material, some of which related to national defense.
In this photo illustration, pages are viewed from the government’s released version of the F.B.I. search warrant affidavit for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on August 27, 2022 in California. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images