Former President Donald Trump said that a photo showing alleged top secret files that were scattered on the floor of Mar-a-Lago was a “set up” by the Department of Justice (DOF) and FBI.
In an interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV, Trump was asked about a DOJ court filing last week that showed documents and papers that were scattered on the floor. Some of them were labeled as classified or “TOP SECRET.”
“That they put there. It’s a set-up. It’s weaponization. And it’s inappropriate to do. It’s a bad thing for our country,” Trump said from his home in Bedminister, New Jersey, in an interview published Thursday.
The FBI raid targeting Mar-a-Lago “was a terrible thing,” he continued. “And frankly, that’s had a big impact on the population. I think it’s boomeranged, and very negatively, on them.”
The DOJ included the photo in a response to Trump’s request to obtain a special master—or a neutral, third party—to review documents that were taken from his home. The former president has maintained that he declassified those documents, pointing to an executive order he made in early 2021.
Federal Judge Aileen Cannon on Labor Day granted Trump’s request for a special master to review the records. In its counter-argument, DOJ lawyers said that a filter team had already looked at the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago, which Trump said included tax records, medical paperwork, passports, and other personal items.
Meanwhile, the DOJ also said that possibly privileged materials, including communications between Trump and his attorneys, were obtained during the search.
Order
Writing in her order, Cannon noted that the DOJ appears to have leaked some information about its case against Trump to media outlets. Without making specific reference to the leaks, Cannon said that those actions would cause harm to Trump.
“In addition to being deprived of potentially significant personal documents, which alone creates a real harm, Plaintiff faces an unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public,” Cannon said in her 24-page order.
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