Documents at former U.S. President Donald Trump's Florida estate were "likely concealed" to obstruct an ongoing FBI probe into his potential mishandling of classified materials, the Justice Department said in a court filing Tuesday.
The filing provides the most detailed account yet of the motivation for the FBI raid this month on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, which was triggered by a review of records he previously surrendered to authorities that contained top secret information.
In the 54-page filing, prosecutors on Tuesday laid out their evidence of obstruction of justice, alleging publicly for the first time that Trump aides both falsely certified in June that the former president had returned all the government records he had stored in his home after leaving the White House in January 2021.
Before the raid, the FBI uncovered "multiple sources of evidence" showing that "classified documents" remained at Mar-a-Lago, the filing says.
"The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed ... and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government's investigation," the filing adds.
The Justice Department said it provided the detailed background on the build-up to the raid "to correct the incomplete and inaccurate narrative set forth in (Trump's) filings."
The filing responds to Trump's request last week for an independent party, or "special master," to screen files seized in the FBI raid for materials protected by personal privilege.
It released a photograph of some of the records found inside Trump's home bearing classification markings, some of which refer to clandestine human sources.
A special master is an independent third party sometimes appointed by a court in sensitive cases to review materials potentially covered by attorney-client privilege to ensure investigators do not improperly view them.
A special master was appointed, for instance, in the searches of the homes and offices of two of Trump's former attorneys: Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen.
In Trump's initial request to the court, his attorneys claimed that the former president wanted to protect materials that were subject to a legal doctrine known as executive privilege, which can shield some presidential communications.
Legal experts called that argument into question, saying it was illogical for a former president to claim he wanted to assert executive privilege against the executive branch itself.
Trump's legal team later narrowed its request, asking for a privilege review without explicitly referring to executive privilege.
The Justice Department on Tuesday said it opposed the appointment of a special master.
Trump, who is weighing another White House run in 2024, has accused the Justice Department under Democratic President Joe Biden of conducting a "witch hunt" and said the judge "should never have allowed the break-in of my home."
