No Indication Trump-Held Records Marked Classified Were Disclosed to Anyone: Trump Lawyers

An aerial view of former U.S. President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home after FBI agents raided it, in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 15, 2022. Marco Bello/Reuters

There’s no evidence that records marked classified that were seized from former President Donald Trump’s home in August were disclosed to anyone, lawyers for Trump said in a new filing on Sept. 12.

U.S. government officials said last week that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon should partially halt her order granting Trump a special master because, they said, federal agents must be able to assess whether the records “may have been accessed by others and compromised.” If any allegations or leads need pursuing, the FBI would be responsible for tracking them down, the officials said.

In the counterfiling on Monday, lawyers for Trump—who has said he declassified the records in question—noted that no evidence of possible disclosure was offered by the government.

“The Government generally points to the alleged urgent need to conduct a risk assessment of possible unauthorized disclosure of purported ‘classified records,’” they said. “But there is no indication any purported ‘classified records’ were disclosed to anyone. Indeed, it appears such ’classified records,' along with the other seized materials, were principally located in storage boxes in a locked room at Mar-a-Lago, a secure, controlled access compound utilized regularly to conduct the official business of the United States during the Trump Presidency, which to this day is monitored by the United States Secret Service.”

The lawyers also hit the government for allegedly leaking details about classified records to the press.

A number of news outlets have reported alleged details from the records, citing anonymous sources.

“The Government is apparently not concerned with unauthorized leaks regarding the contents of the purported ‘classified records,’” Trump’s lawyers said in a footnote, providing a link to one of the stories, “and would presumably be prepared to share all such records publicly in any future jury trial.”

“However, the Government advances the untenable position in its Motion that the secure review by a Court appointed and supervised special master under controlled access conditions is somehow problematic and poses a risk to national security,” they added.

Asked about the apparent leaks in a recent hearing, Department of Justice official Jay Bratt did not deny the government was the source.

Bratt did say that he did not know of any leaks from people he was working with.

“Obviously, I see the same things in the press that other people do. It’s bad. People are talking,” Bratt said. “If people on the government’s side are talking about it, I’m not aware of anybody that we work with that has had contact with the press and certainly don’t condone it in any way.”