In a lengthy rejoinder to Trump’s request for an independent screener, prosecutors also refuted claims that the former president had cooperated with authorities in the months leading to the unprecedented Aug. 8 search. Justice officials asserted that Trump’s lawyers prohibited investigators in June from viewing the contents of boxes inside a storage room “to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained.”
Two months later, FBI agents descended on the property where they discovered 11 sets of classified documents among the more than 20 boxes removed from the property.
“The legal issues presented, and the relief requested in the filings, are narrow, notwithstanding the wide-ranging meritless accusations leveled against the government in the motion,” Justice officials argued, referring to the Trump request. “Not only does Plaintiff lack standing to raise these claims at this juncture, but even if his claims were properly raised, Plaintiff would not be entitled to the relief he seeks.”
Included in the Justice filing was a photograph, showing how investigators found top secret records, some of them designated at the highest classifications in government, strewn about a carpeted storage room, next to a box of magazines.
