Trump has argued that the 11,000 documents taken from Mar-a-Lago belonged to him, including about 100 that were classified and marked, suggesting they contained some of the nation’s most closely guarded intelligence.
But Derie was furious that Trump’s lawyers had rejected his demands to prove that Trump was in fact trying to declassify any of the 100 documents the Justice Department had recovered from his estate. In the absence of evidence from Trump, Derie said his only basis for judging the classification level of the records is that they are marked with flags that designate them as highly sensitive national security secrets — including some that indicate they are Contains intelligence from human resources and foreign interceptions.
Early tensions between Deere and Trump’s legal team were an ominous sign for the former president, who asked the special director to review documents obtained from Mar-a-Lago and proposed Deere – 1986 The man appointed by Ronald Reagan — to carry out the task. Prosecutors offered two other names but accepted Dearie, Trump’s choice.
Trump’s legal team entered the Brooklyn courthouse about half an hour before the hearing, despite the derision of a handful of protesters, one of whom chanted “Sue Trump!”
There was a softer atmosphere in Dilly’s courtroom. Members of the press sat on the jury, prompting one of Trump’s lawyers to joke before the meeting that the former president’s team disagreed with the group of jurors.
Dearie, 78, exchanged succinctly with all parties during the 40-minute session. He noted that Trump’s current lawsuit is civil in nature and because no criminal charges have been brought, it is Trump’s responsibility to support any claims of privilege or other protected interest in the document.
Trump’s lawyers have asked Dilly to initiate the process of obtaining a security clearance so they can review the so-called classified documents.
But prosecutor Julie Edelstein told the judge that some of the records involved were so sensitive that members of the government’s investigative team still remained unauthorised.
Whether any records seized from Trump’s home are classified may ultimately be a secondary question. The Justice Department stressed that the three potential crimes it is investigating do not depend on whether material held at Mar-a-Lago is classified.
Still, Dearie’s comments on the classification of records are particularly notable in light of another court filing from Trump, who is urging a federal appeals court to uphold Cannon’s order preventing the Justice Department from advancing a criminal investigation into the seizure of records.
In that document, Trump’s lawyers argued that the Justice Department — not Trump — was responsible for showing that the documents seized last month were classified. Dearie dismissed the argument in his court, saying it was the markings on the documents that mattered.