美国司法部(Justice Department)指控前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)和他的法律团队在保留从特朗普的Mar-a-Lago度假村(Mar-a-Lago resort)没收的数千份记录的斗争中搞“小动作”，这些记录现在掌握在法院任命的特别大师手中。
特朗普的律师声称当他下令将白宫的材料打包，然后运到Mar-a-Lago时，这些材料实际上被自动指定为他自己的个人记录。但与此同时，他的律师表示，如果特别检察官雷蒙德·迪尔里拒绝他正在审查的某些文件的论点，他们应该有机会声称他们受到行政特权的保护。
“特殊的主人不应该纵容这种类型的小动作，”部门官员说特朗普的立场。
特朗普团队和DOJ的文件于周一上午公布，回应了Dearie的要求，即双方提出所谓的“全球问题”，他将在筛选大约3000份文件时寻求解决这些问题，并决定向地区法官Aileen Cannon提出哪些建议，这些记录应在他们正在进行的刑事调查中交还给检察官。
Dearie向Cannon的建议将于12月16日到期，尽管尚不清楚她何时会对此事做出裁决，或者她是否会接受他的建议。
DOJ同时寻求推翻迪尔里的任命在第11巡回上诉法院停止特别主程序。检察官此前成功地主张第11巡回法院暂缓执行坎农法官的部分裁决，该裁决命令他们向Dearie移交从Mar-a-Lago没收的大约100份带有分类标记的文件，并禁止联邦调查局在正在进行的刑事调查中使用这些文件。
该部门表示，无法获取从Mar-a-Lago没收的数千份非机密文件阻碍了他们正在进行的调查，他们在周一的文件中重申了这一观点。
“政府对这些材料的迫切需要是显而易见的，特别检察官应该拒绝原告使用模糊和无根据的断言来进一步拖延调查的企图，”他们周一表示。
他们还指责特朗普的法律团队根据对《总统记录法》的解读，提供“全面而毫无根据的理论”来支持他们对这些文件的主张，称特朗普“似乎在声称，他可以单方面‘认为’总统记录是个人记录。”
“对PRA的这种解读将使该法案的整个目的无效，因为它允许总统将他所有的官方记录指定为‘个人’记录，然后在离开白宫时删除它们，”DOJ官员杰伊·布拉特在文件中说。“这会让PRA对‘总统记录’和‘个人记录’的详细定义沦为纯粹的建议。”
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a "Save America" rally, Nov. 6, 2022, in Miami.
伊娃·玛丽Uzcategui/法新社
DOJ说，即使川普的说法是正确的，对于他们在进行中的调查中获取这些文件的权利来说，这也相当于“转移视线”。
布拉特说:“根据法院授权的搜查令条款，联邦调查局依法没收了与位于原告处所的机密材料混合或共同储存的文件，因为它们与政府正在进行的调查有关。”。“无论是个人文件还是政府记录，这种相关性都存在。在没有有效和有根据的特权要求的情况下，现在必须向调查小组提供所有这些文件。”
DOJ accuses Trump legal team of 'gamesmanship' in battle over seized documents
The Justice Department is accusing former President Donald Trump and his legal team of engaging in "gamesmanship" in their battle to retain thousands of records seized from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort that are now in the hands of a court-appointed special master.
Trump's attorneys assertthat when he ordered the packing of materials in the White House that were then transported to Mar-a-Lago, they were in effect automatically designated as his own personal records. But at the same time, his attorneys say if special master Raymond Dearie rejects that argument for certain documents he's reviewing, they should have the opportunity to claim they are covered by executive privilege.
"The Special Master should not indulge this type of gamesmanship,"department officials saidof Trump's position.
The filings from Trump's team and DOJ, unsealed Monday morning, responded to Dearie's demand that both parties lay out so-called "global issues" that he will seek to address as he filters through the roughly 3,000 documents and determines what recommendations to make to district judge Aileen Cannon on records that should be handed back over to prosecutors in their ongoing criminal investigation.
Dearie's recommendations to Cannon are due by Dec. 16 -- though it's unclear when she might rule on the matter or if she'll accept his proposals.
DOJ is simultaneously seeking to overrule Dearie's appointment andput a stop to the special master process before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Prosecutors had previously succeeded in arguing for the 11th Circuit to stay a portion of Judge Cannon's ruling that ordered them to hand over to Dearie roughly 100 documents with classification markings seized from Mar-a-Lago and enjoined the FBI from using them in its ongoing criminal investigation.
The department has said that its inability to access the thousands of non-classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago has served to hamper their ongoing investigation, an argument they restated in their filing Monday.
"The government's compelling need for these materials is plain, and the Special Master should reject Plaintiff's attempts to use vague and unsupported assertions to further delay the investigation," they said Monday.
They also accused Trump's legal team of offering a "sweeping and baseless theory" to support their claims over the documents under a reading of the Presidential Records Act, saying Trump "appears to be claiming that he can unilaterally 'deem' otherwise Presidential records to be personal records by fiat."
"Such a reading of the PRA would nullify the statute's entire purpose by allowing a President to designate all of his official records as 'personal' records and then to remove them upon departure from the White House," DOJ official Jay Bratt said in the filing. "It would reduce the PRA's detailed definitions of 'Presidential records' and 'personal records' to mere suggestions."
And even if Trump were correct in his claims, DOJ says, it would amount to a "red herring" regarding their right to access the documents as part of their ongoing investigation.
"Documents commingled or collectively stored with the classified materials located at Plaintiff's premises were lawfully seized by the FBI in accordance with the terms of the court-authorized search warrant because of their relevance to the government's ongoing investigation," Bratt said. "That relevance exists irrespective of whether they were personal papers or government records. In the absence of a valid and substantiated claim of privilege, all such documents must now be made available to the investigative team."
