Trump lawyers in classified documents case ask judge to review search warrant for Mar-a-Lago raid – Palm Beach Post
FORT PIERCE — Donald Trump’s attorneys returned to court for the last of back-to-back hearings Tuesday to challenge the legality of the FBI raid that seized classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump attorney Emil Bove told U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that the warrant used to justify the search was overbroad and misleading. He criticized agents’ decision to search the bedrooms of the former president’s wife and son, where no classified material was found, as well as the fact that they collected items that did not bear classification markings, such as medical documents and Trump’s passport.
Prosecutor David Harbach said Monday that the judge who approved the search warrant used common sense to determine that there was probable cause that a crime had been committed. He added that Trump’s wife and son’s rooms had not been rummaged through and said Trump’s personal documents, which were mixed in with boxes of classified material, were returned to him after the search.
Cannon did not immediately rule on the defense’s request for an evidentiary hearing to flesh out the warrant’s legitimacy. She did, however, say that the warrant didn’t seem overbroad like Bove claimed.
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Tuesday’s hearing was the last in a series of back-to-back proceedings at the Alto Lee Adams Sr. Courthouse that began Friday. Prosecutors previously debated with Trump’s attorneys over the legality of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment, as well as a potential gag order on the former president. Cannon has not yet ruled on either issue.
She has been scrutinized over her handling of the case, both for taking months to issue rulings and for entertaining dubious legal claims — all of which make a trial before the presidential election in November unlikely.
Cannon has not hinted at a potential trial date since she postponed it in May. Prosecutors have suggested that it could begin in early July, while Trump’s lawyers have argued it should start no earlier than August. The Republican National Convention is scheduled for July 15-18 in Milwaukee.
Tuesday’s argument began in a sealed hearing at 11 a.m. The proceedings opened to the public at 1 p.m. Neither Trump nor his co-defendants, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, attended any of the back-to-back hearings.
Accused of hoarding classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them, all three have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.