45th President Donald Trump has officially filed a motion against the federal government, asking for a special master to “oversee the handling of the materials taken in the raid” of his Mar-a-Lago home.
Trump filed the lawsuit in the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida on Monday, saying that his Fourth Amendment rights had been violated by the seizure of certain documents, including his passports.
“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 lawsuit says.
It adds that the raid on Mar-a-Lago was “shockingly aggressive” and the move showed “no understanding of the distress that it would cause most Americans.”
“Like all citizens, (Trump) is protected by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Property seized in violation of his constitutional rights musty be returned forthwith”, the lawsuit reads.
The suit also describes a June 3 visit by DOJ official Jay Bratt, which came amid back-and-forth about government materials held at Mar-a-Lago. At one point, Bratt and a group of officials, led by two Secret Service agents, visited a storage room where archival documents were held. “The storage room contained boxes, many containing the clothing and personal items of President Trump and the first lady,” the suit says.
It says after Trump and his family “settled back into their home,” Trump “voluntarily asked [the National Archives] movers to come to Mar-a-Lago to receive 15 boxes of documents.”
The suit also puts forward the possibility that Trump will argue in the court that the retrieved documents – including some at the top government classification levels – had been declassified by him.
“President Trump determined that a search for documents bearing classification markings should be conducted – even if the marked documents had been declassified,’ it says. The suit says his staff conducted a “diligent search.”
45th President Donald Trump also released the following statement:
Read the lawsuit:
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