August 31: Trump likely obstructed classified records probe, DOJ says

Just minutes before a midnight deadline, the Justice Department filed a stunning response to former President Donald Trump’s request for an independent review of the documents seized from his Florida home earlier this month.

The 36-page document is chock-full of previously unknown information, providing an extensive timeline of how the government worked to recover classified material before the unprecedented search of Mar-a-Lago. It is the clearest and most detailed account yet offered of the steps taken before the search and forcefully rebuts attacks from Trump and his allies. It going so far to claim that “government records were likely concealed” from prosecutors and “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.”

The DOJ filing says Trump’s request for a special master “is unnecessary and would significantly harm important governmental interests,” dismissing it as an attempt to slow down the investigation. It also claims Trump has no standing to sue because the records belong to the government, not to him. And, notably, prosecutors placed a photo of some of the seized documents — strewn across a Mar-a-Lago carpet with their classified markings plain to see — into the public court record.

Trump and his allies have claimed executive privilege over the documents, but prosecutors rejected that assertion — arguing that executive privilege is usually invoked to protect communications from the legislative or judicial branch, not within the executive branch itself. The prosecution team, led by DOJ counterintelligence chief Jay Bratt, also points out that Trump never once asserted executive privilege or declassified the documents prior to the search.

Kara Tabor is an audio producer for POLITICO Audio.
Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.