WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Wednesday that it had turned over the bulk of documents retrieved from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate to the former president’s legal team, starting a 21-day clock for Trump to decide — and officially declare — precisely which records he wants off-limits in a criminal probe.
Trump’s legal team will have the next three weeks to go through the thousands of pages of documents and produce a spreadsheet detailing claims they want to press for why the government shouldn’t be allowed to use specific materials in its investigation. Those could include claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege, or that certain presidential records should be considered “personal” under federal law.
The Justice Department has disputed that Trump, as a former president, could claim executive privilege or successfully argue that government records he hadn’t turned over to the National Archives after leaving office were “personal” under the Presidential Records Act. The government has also argued that a special filter team already did a sweep for any legal documents that might be protected.
