Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s defenses in the Mar-a-Lago document case are getting weaker by the day. A report by The New York Times suggests that Trump was fully aware of the consequences of holding back government documents well ahead of the Federal Bureau Of Investigation's raid of his Florida home.
What Happened: Former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann warned Trump late last year of the potential legal consequences of not returning the government documents that he took while he was in office, said NYT, citing three people familiar with the matter.
Trump was particularly advised to return any classified material he had in his possession, the report stated. The precise date of the meeting between the two and whether Herschmann was aware of what was in the boxes wasn’t known clearly, it added.
Trump, though, thanking the lawyer, was non-committal about returning the documents, the report said, citing sources.
Later, in January, Trump returned to the National Archives 15 boxes of material he had taken from the White House, which included 184 classified documents, the Justice Department said, according to NYT. Notwithstanding this, Trump had with him a “considerable cache of other documents” and he reportedly returned some under a subpoena issued in June.
A court-authorized search by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in early August recovered more documents, including about 100 marked as classified, from the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
See Also: Setback For Trump In Mar-a-Lago Case? DOJ Appeals To Regain Access To Seized Classified Documents
Why It’s Important: The Justice Department has made a request with the appeals court to allow access to the classified documents after South Florida District Court Judge Aileen Cannon forbade the agency from reviewing any documents and granted Trump’s request to appoint a special master.
The Justice Department and Donald Trump’s legal team were invited by Judge Raymond Dearie, who has been appointed as the special master, to submit letters by Monday, outlining what should be covered in the first meeting in his courtroom in the federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Tuesday, said NYT. Trump’s legal team said in a letter that the proposed calendar circulated compresses the inspection and labeling process to be completed by Oct. 7.
“We respectfully suggest that all of the deadlines can be extended to allow for a more realistic and complete assessment of the areas of disagreement,” Trump’s lawyers said in the letter.
