The Department of Justice said on Wednesday in a filing with the Florida District Court that it has made available the bulk of the materials seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence as required by the court’s order.
What Happened: The former U.S. president’s legal team will be given a 21-day timeframe to sift through the documents and prepare a spreadsheet, providing details of the specific materials it wants to keep out of the Justice Department’s eyes and the reason thereof, reported Bloomberg.
The reasons for retaining the documents could include claims of “attorney-client privilege” or “executive privilege” or the argument that certain presidential records should be considered “personal” under federal law, the report said.
The DOJ had argued that Trump could use his position as the former president and claim executive privilege or argue that the government records that he hadn’t turned over to the National Archives after his White House exit were personal under the “Presidential Records Act.
While a filter team from the DOJ has already scanned through the materials to zero in on any legal documents that might be protected, the court-appointed special master Raymond Dearie also received the documents this week, Bloomberg said.
While the DOJ's revised inventory indicated more than 13,000 federal documents, Trump's attorneys claimed in a prior filing that a government correspondence claimed the documents had in all over 200,000 pages, the report said.
A spreadsheet filed by the DOJ, according to the report, listed 21,792 “Bates” stamped pages across the 33 boxes and other document collections.
The materials made available to Trump’s lawyers and Dearie reportedly did not include the 103 documents bearing classified markings. The former president’s lawyers had previously requested Supreme Court’s interference to help the special master gain access to those documents.
What’s Next: Once Trump’s legal team compiles the list, the DOJ and the team have another 10 days to raise disputes, if any, before Dearie. He, in turn, will review the points of contention before making recommendations to the South Florida District Court Judge Aileen Cannon by Dec. 16.
Cannon will then consider Dearie’s recommendation and issue a final order.
