DOJ Hits Back At Trump Claims In New Court Filing

Donald Trump is trying to claim that the documents he had in his possession that were marked "Classified" were actually just his personal documents, according to what his team has told the Special Master. However, the DOJ hit back in a new court filing over the weekend, claiming that the classified status of these documents meant there was no way they could be considered "personal" for Trump. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses these latest developments.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Donald Trump's lawyers, uh, filed a recent, uh, filing with Special Master Ray Deer in the ongoing documents investigation telling him that all these documents that Donald Trump had in his desk that the FBI took, those were all personal. You can't have those, you must return them to us. So over the weekend, the DOJ submitted a filing to special master theory explaining to him what exactly was in Donald Trump's desk in a leather bound box, letting him know that, hey, these are not Donald Trump's personal documents. These were in fact seven documents marked top secret, 15 marked secret, two marked confidential, as well as 45 empty folders with classified banners and 28 folders marked return to staff secretary slash military aid. So the DOJ, of course, is firing back at what Donald Trump and his legal team are trying to argue in front of Special Master Ray dear.

And they're telling him point blank, these documents are literally marked classified. And the only way he could get his hands on these classified documents is if he got them while he was president of the United States. And in their court filing, they continue to say if he got 'em when he was president of the United States, then guess what? That falls under the Presidential Records Act. And he is not allowed to have them. So it is nice to see that the DOJ is not only going after the classified documents thing, they're also saying, Okay, well if you did declassify them, guess what? Still illegal to have them in your possession because of the Presidential Records Act. So the DOJ is not going lightly on this. They're not trying to let, Okay, well yeah, you declassified them, you can have them. They're not falling for that crap anymore.

And that is a very good thing moving forward with this investigation. It means that the doj, I think no matter which way they want to do it, whether it's, you know, mishandling classified documents or simply violations of the Presidential Records Act, I think they're definitely looking to charge him with something. They wouldn't go to dairy and make that argument under the Presidential Records Act if they didn't want to get Trump on something. Okay. That's the big takeaway from this filing, that they're now using the Presidential Records Act to kind of skirt those claims that he declassified. No, he didn't. Yes he did. They'll settle that in court. You know, they'll be able to make that argument based on what happens with witness testimony. Uh, even actually prior to court, by the way, cuz they'll have to have the official charges before then, but they still have to interview K Patel. He has to be able to provide them evidence that Trump did

In fact, uh, declassify these, which the evidence of that does not exist. So it's nothing more than hearsay at this point. So yeah, Trump is in trouble with this particular case because the DOJ is not going to let it slide. They're not gonna sit there and just accept their arguments. They are fighting back. They could have just sat there and said, We're not gonna do anything. Fine if you want to keep 'em, keep 'em. We took what we needed. It's back at the National Archives. Now we're done with this. But I think after doing this for more than a year with Donald Trump, the back and forth, the lies, I think they're just ready to say, You us off and now we're coming at you full force based on these filings. That's what I think is happening now.