Trump appears to admit some documents seized by FBI were unlawfully held at Mar-a-Lago, expert says

Lawyers for former US president suggest files covered by executive privilege

Donald Trump has appeared to admit that documents taken from his Mar-a-Lago home were held by him unlawfully in a motion challenging the FBI’s review of the files.

Writing in a motion filed in Florida on Monday, lawyers for the former US president argued for the appointment of a neutral special master to review the documents seized by FBI agents on 8 August, to determine which ones could be covered by executive privilege.

The privilege argument could indicate that some of the documents were in fact official records that Mr Trump was not authorised to keep after he left the presidency, an expert says.

“If he’s acknowledging that he’s in possession of documents that would have any colourable claim of executive privilege, those are by definition presidential records and belong at the National Archives,” a former FBI agent and former Yale Law School associate dean, Asha Rangappa, told The Guardian on Monday.

“So it’s not clear that executive privilege would even be relevant to the particular crime he’s being investigated for,” she added. “In this filing he basically admits that he is in possession of them, which is what the government is trying to establish”.

A set of 11 separate sets of documents were seized by FBI agents from Mar-a-Lago on 8 August using a US justice department search warrant seeking possibly classified material taken from the White House by Mr Trump, who has denied wrongdoing and has described the search as a politically motivated attack.

The search followed a months-long justice department investigation at the request of the National Archives, which in January retrieved 15 boxes of documents and other items from Mar-a-Lago.

A follow-up probe found that additional classified documents were possibly still at the estate, the Associated Press reported on Monday, leading to this month’s seizure and a search warrant listing possible violations of US law, including the Espionage Act.

“Law enforcement is a shield that protects America. It cannot be used as a weapon for political purposes,” Mr Trump’s lawyers wrote in the motion. “Therefore, we seek judicial assistance in the aftermath of an unprecedented and unnecessary raid” at Mar-a-Lago.

The Independent has contacted Mr Trump for comment.