The Department of Justice said on Wednesday in a filing with the Florida District Court that it has made available the bulk of the materials seized from Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago residence as required by the courts order.
What Happened: The former U.S.presidents legal team will be given a 21-day timeframe to sift through the documents and prepare a spreadsheet, providing details of the specific materials it wants to keep out of the Justice Departments eyes and the reason thereof,reported Bloomberg.
The reasons for retaining the documents could include claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege or the argument that certain presidential records should be considered personal under federal law, the report said.
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The DOJ had argued that Trump could use his position as the former president and claim executive privilege or argue that the government records that he hadnt turned over to the National Archives after his White House exit were personal under the Presidential Records Act.
While a filter team from the DOJ has already scanned through the materials to zero in on any legal documents that might be protected, the court-appointed special master Raymond Dearie also received the documents this week, Bloomberg said.
While the DOJ's revised inventory indicated more than 13,000 federal documents, Trump's attorneys claimed in a prior filing that a government correspondence claimed the documents had in all over 200,000 pages, the report said.
A spreadsheet filed by the DOJ, according to the report, listed 21,792 Bates stamped pages across the 33 boxes and other document collections.
The materials made available to Trumps lawyers and Dearie reportedly did not include the 103 documents bearing classified markings. The former presidents lawyers had previously requested Supreme Courts interference to help the special master gain access to those documents.
Whats Next: Once Trumps legal team compiles the list, the DOJ and the team have another 10 days to raise disputes, if any, before Dearie. He, in turn, will review the points of contention before making recommendations to the South Florida District Court Judge Aileen Cannon by Dec. 16.
Cannon will then consider Dearies recommendation and issue a final order.