In a newly unveiled legal brief, former President Donald Trump’s lawyers are now claiming that the 11,000 federal documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence were classified as “personal”—an argument the feds simply aren’t buying. “Thus, when he made a designation decision, he was President of the United States; his decision to retain certain records as personal is entitled to deference, and the records in question are thus presumptively personal,” the brief reads. “President Trump need not put forth documentary evidence of his designation decisions, because his conduct unequivocally confirmed that he was treating the materials in question as personal records, rather than presidential records.” In a separate brief, the Justice Department argued that Trump can’t make that decree “simply by saying so.” Doing so “would nullify [the Presidential Records Act’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.” Trump has also claimed that his possession of the documents is shielded from public scrutiny under executive privilege. Last month, the Justice Department asked a federal appeals court to throw out Trump’s legal challenge to the investigation altogether.
