The Justice Department has accused Donald Trump and his legal team of using “gamesmanship” in their attempt to retain the documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. The documents are not with a court-appointed special master who is charged with reviewing them.
Trump’s attorneys have maintained that when Trump ordered the documents to be packaged and transported to Mar-a-Lago they effectively became his personal records.
Trump’s attorneys have also noted that if special master Raymond Dearie does not accept that claim for certain of the documents he is tasked with reviewing then they should be given the chance to claim that these documents are covered by executive privilege.
Department officials however have said that “The Special Master should not indulge this type of gamesmanship.”
The filings from Trump’s team and DOJ, unsealed Monday morning, were a response to Dearie’s request for both parties to lay out “global issues” that he would address as he was reviewing the documents. The review will also help determine which documents should be given back to the prosecutors to be included in their ongoing criminal investigation.
Dearie’s recommendations are due on December 16th.
At the same time, the DOG is trying to overrule Dearie’s appointment and has filed with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The department has also said that its inability to review the seized documents was blocking its ongoing investigation.
