Dealing with Trump files: US Department of Justice wants to get rid of special auditors

Dealing with Trump files
US Department of Justice wants to get rid of special investigators

After a defeat in the Supreme Court in the question of how to deal with the documents confiscated from him, ex-President Trump is threatened with new trouble: The US Department of Justice now wants to continue without the neutral special auditor enforced by Trump’s team.

In the legal tug of war over the government documents confiscated from ex-President Donald Trump, the US Department of Justice is addressing a significant hurdle for the investigation. On Friday, the authority applied to an appeals court to reverse the appointment of a special auditor. He is supposed to filter out the papers that investigators should not have access to – for example with a view to attorney-client privilege.

The special examiner was appointed by a district judge at the request of Trump’s attorneys. The Ministry of Justice had already been able to persuade the Court of Appeal to exclude around 100 documents with a secret note from an assessment by the special auditor. This allows them to be used for investigations. Trump’s lawyers tried to appeal to the US Supreme Court, but their request was rejected.

The Justice Department argued on Friday, among other things, that the special investigator was not necessary because it had itself deployed a team to sift out confidential and personal documents. And Trump’s lawyers have not shown that this procedure was flawed.

There is also a dispute as to whether Trump, as ex-president, can continue to enjoy the protection of his documents as he did during his tenure. An assessment with a view to this question was mentioned by the judge as one of the tasks of the special auditor. The Justice Department insists that Trump, as a former president, no longer has such protections.

In early August, the Federal Police FBI searched Trump’s villa in the US state of Florida. The FBI confiscated various classified documents, some with the highest level of secrecy. By keeping the documents in his private home after leaving office, Trump could have made himself liable to prosecution.

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