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Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have asked a judge to deny the Department of Justice's request to continue reviewing documents seized from Mar-a-Lago while both sides await a decision on appointing a special master.
Last week, the Justice Department lawyers requested a stay on Judge Aileen Cannon's order that prohibited investigators from reviewing the documents until the special master has been named. Both sides have submitted a list of potential candidates.
Trump's legal team urged Cannon to reject the appeal and continue blocking investigators from analyzing the documents seized by the FBI.
"In what at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control, the Government wrongfully seeks to criminalize the possession by the 45th President of his own Presidential and personal records," Trump's legal team wrote.
The legal filing also pushed back against claims that the classified documents were a national security risk.
"There is no indication any purported 'classified records' were disclosed to anyone. Indeed, it appears such 'classified records,' along with the other seized materials, were principally located in storage boxes in a locked room at Mar-a-Lago, a secure, controlled access compound utilized regularly to conduct the official business of the United States during the Trump Presidency, which to this day is monitored by the United States Secret Service," the filing continued.