Trump lawyer contradicts claim secret papers were declassified before correcting herself in latest gaffe

‘I don’t have clearance to touch or go through classified documents. You actually have to have clearance to do that’

An attorney for Donald Trump appeared to contradict the former president’s claim that documents taken from his Mar-a-Lago residence were “declassified”, saying she didn’t have clearance to handle the “classified” documents before quickly correcting herself.

Alina Habba, in an interview with Sean Spicer on Newsmax on Thursday, said she is not working directly on the former president’s legal case regarding the seizure of documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Her response came when she was asked about a Politico report that cited a court filing in which Ms Habba said that on 5 May – just days before the Justice Department issued a subpoena to recover highly sensitive documents housed at Mar-a-Lago – she had gone to the estate searching for records in response to a separate legal matter.

Ms Habba said she is working on a separate ongoing case with the New York Attorney General.

“I’m happy to explain this,” she said on Newsmax.

“Unfortunately, there’s been mass confusion with both the left- and right-wing media.”

“This has nothing to do with the [Florida] search,” she said.

“I’m one of president Trump’s attorneys, but I don’t handle everything. I’m sorry left-wing media, but this had nothing to do with the other.”

In the court filing, Ms Habba had said she had conducted “significant, diligent and comprehensive search” of “every room” of Mr Trump’s home, “including all desks, drawers, nightstands, dressers, closets, etc”.

When asked what she thought of the two cases being conflated, she said: “Sorry, guys, we’re going to have to move on to the next issue.

“I don’t have clearance to touch or go through classified documents. You actually have to have clearance to do that.”

She then quickly corrected herself and said: “These were declassified, is my understanding. But then again I am not the attorney that is handling this, haven’t been. I don’t plan on being. There are a team of attorneys who are dealing with this.”

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice released the first photos of the documents that were seized from Mr Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida. The photos showed documents strewn all across the floor with words like “secret” and “top secret” written over them.

The former president has accused the department of staging the photo and claimed the documents were declassified.

This is not the first time Ms Habba has made an accidental slip on Mr Trump’s case.

On Wednesday, she unwittingly admitted to Fox News that the former president “frequently” had guests in the room where top secret papers were found.