Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice on Monday after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida earlier this month.
In the lawsuit, Trump's legal team is asking that an independent lawyer known as a special master be appointed to oversee the documents that the FBI took from his home on August 8 during the unannounced raid.
The FBI reportedly acquired about eleven sets of classified documents as part of an investigation into Trump's potential mishandling of files he took from the White House after he left office in January 2021.
Trump, however, contends that he did nothing wrong, and the confiscated documents were declassified when he was president.
The former president also asked a judge to freeze the DOJ's investigation of the confiscated files.
Trump's legal team, who filed the lawsuit in a Florida court on Monday, accused the Justice Department of "simply wanting the camel's nose under the tent so they could rummage for either politically helpful documents or support efforts to thwart President Trump from running again."
"President Donald J. Trump is the clear frontrunner in the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary and in the 2024 General Election, should he decide to run," the lawsuit added.
"Law enforcement is a shield that protects Americans," it continued. "It cannot be used as a weapon for political purposes."
Trump's lawyers also argued that the "shockingly aggressive move" on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate by about two dozen FBI agents transpired "with no understanding of the distress that it would cause most Americans."
As reported by BBC News, DOJ spokesperson Anthony Coley explained that the "search warrant at Mar-a-Lago was authorized by a federal court upon the required finding of probable cause."
As of Monday, the New York Times reports that the FBI recovered more than 300 documents with classified markings from Trump, including material belonging to the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the FBI.
Trump's legal team argued that the warrant was too broad and that the unprecedented search violated the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits the government from conducting unreasonable searches and seizures on Americans. They also accused the government of "ever-changing, and inaccurate, 'justifications'" for the search to preferred media outlets.
Three days after the search, Trump's lawyers explained that they contacted an FBI agent who visited Mar-A-Lago in June and asked him to relay a message from Trump to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The message, which was included in the lawsuit, said that the former president had heard "from people around the country about the raid."
"If there was one word to describe their mood, it is 'angry,'" Trump's message continued.
"The heat is building up. The pressure is building up. Whatever I can do to take the heat down, to bring the pressure down, just let us know."
The judge who approved the warrant has yet to determine whether to release the affidavit that was used as a justification for the FBI probe of Trump's home.
Related:
FBI Searches Trump's Mar-a-Lago Home as Part of Records Probe
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Drew Angerer/Staff
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
