Earlier today, attorneys for disgraced former president Donald Trump filed a lawsuit asking a judge to appoint a special master who would review the documents seized from the failed ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago golf resort.
CNBC reports on the suit:
Trump’s lawsuit, which suggests the Aug. 8 FBI raid was politically motivated, also asks that the Department of Justice be blocked from “further review of seized materials” from his Mar-a-Lago residence until the so-called special master is appointed to review the documents.
Special masters are appointed in criminal cases when there is a concern that some material seized by authorities should not be viewed by investigators because it is protected by attorney-client privilege or other factors that weigh against it being used in a prosecution.
But according to Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe, the lawsuit is “very strange” and likely to make it more certain that Attorney General Merrick Garland prosecutes Trump, telling MSNBC host Joy Reid:
“It’s very strange. For one thing, it’s filed not on behalf of private citizen Trump but filed on behalf of President Donald J. Trump. You know, it’s never been clear that he distinguishes between himself as a private citizen and himself as president. That may help explain just psychologically why he feels he’s entitled to all these papers. He says they’re his. That’s one thing that’s really strange. Another thing that’s quite strange, you mentioned yourself just a minute ago: he waited a couple of weeks. So, it’s sort of too late to ask for some new special master.”
Tribe also noted that Trump attacks the Justice Department for taking three days to obtain and execute the search warrant:
“Then, finally, it’s strange, not so much what it says but what it doesn’t say,” he continued. “It doesn’t really give any good reasons for thinking this warrant was illegal. In fact, one of the amazing things that I agree with is a statement on page 13 that President Trump, he still calls himself President Trump, should not be treated differently from any other citizen. Finally, he gets that right. Any other citizen who took top-secret material to not just a private home but a resort, like Mar-a-Lago, which has been penetrated by Chinese spies and perhaps by others, would be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. So, he is sort of asking Merrick Garland to prosecute him. Thank you, Mr. Trump, I won’t call him President Trump.
“If he’s being treated not as president but as a citizen, he’s got to be indicted. Otherwise, the rule of law just doesn’t mean anything.”
