Lawyers for Donald Trump are set to sue the US justice department over the 2022 federal raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida that turned up classified documents hidden in unsecured locations around the expansive villa and resort.
Lawyers for the former US president told Fox Business that the raid, conducted as part of an FBI investigation into Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified records, was done with “clear intent to engage in political persecution” and they would seek $100m in damages.
The investigation produced 37 felony counts – 31 pertaining to the willful retention of national defense information – against Trump. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. The charges were dismissed last month after the presiding judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the case, had been illegally appointed and funded.
Trump attorney Daniel Epstein told the outlet that Trump was not standing up for himself but “standing up for all Americans who believe in the rule of law and believe that you should hold the government accountable when it wrongs you”.
Epstein said that there was “clear evidence” that the FBI failed to follow protocol and that showed that there was an “improper purpose”.
In the filing, Epstein wrote that decisions made by attorney general Merrick Garland and FBI director Christopher Wray were not grounded in “social, economic and political policy” but instead in “clear dereliction of constitutional principles, inconsistent standards as applied to” Trump and a “clear intent to engage in political persecution – not to advance good law enforcement practices”.
The government has 180 days to respond to the notice, after which the case could move to federal court in the southern district of Florida.
In dealing with legal issues on multiple fronts, Trump and his legal team have repeatedly sought to pursue a tactic of delaying them – especially until after November’s presidential election. Filing suits and countersuits is a key part of that strategy.
