classified documents at mar-a-lago were likely concealed or hidden. arguing the former president was simply holding on to his own presidential records. in just a few hours, a judge is set to hear arguments on a request for a special master to review the seized documents. also ahead, president biden is set to deliver a major prime time address tonight on the the battle for the soul of america. we ll get a live preview from the white house coming up. and, the latest on the ongoing water emergency in mississippi. we will speak with the mayor of jackson on the crisis that has now triggered a political blame game. but the bottom line, willie, is people there don t have clean water. that is right. and they haven t for sometime. we ll talk to the mayor in just a moment. but let s begin this hour with former president donald trump s legal team and its response to the department of justice latest filing on the classified documents seized during the fbi search of mar-a-lago. in the 1
about them. it is not right. it is not appropriate. so let s see how judge cannon evaluated this today and not malign her for being a trump appointed judge. donald trump has asked for a special master which is someone to review the documents seized at mar-a-lago and determine whether any are protected by privilege. and i disagree a little bit with joe here on his first set of remarks. ease absolutely right, criminal defense attorneys shouldn t take the government s word and should make filings that explain why a special master is needed over the government s objection. the problem here is that their briefs haven t done that. the justice department filed this long 36-page brief when told a compelling narrative on both the facts an the law about how donald trump stole these documents, he kept them hidden, he lied about keeping them hidden, he was repeatedly asked to return them, and he didn t. and so then they found then they authorized the search with a federal magistrate judge
signing off and they found all of the goods at mar-a-lago. in response, they were afforded, the trump lawyers were supposed to file a reply brief last night. that means you re supposed to reply to what the government said. it didn t reply to what the government said. there was virtually no discussion of the facts whatsoever. and with respect to the law in need for a special master, they never explained what a special master would do at this point besides simply delay the investigation. so joe is right, the defense attorney should be making arguments but the problem here for donald trump is there aren t any arguments. this brief was incredibly hard to follow. it was barely written in english. it should have been left in the drafts folder on their computer. so, neal, another thing that was not addressed in that filing from the trump attorneys was the question of obstruction, which was laid out pretty clearly in that extraordinary document from the justice department just a few days ago
based on what we ve radar into justice department filing and everything that has been made public, does that look like to you where perhaps merrick garland, where justice is headed here, at least as a first step, that, yes, donald trump obstructed our ability to get these documents back. yes and no. so, yes, i think obstruction is simple and easy to prove now. the government s filings a couple of days ago lays out a really clear case for obstruction of grand jury proceedings. donald trump was subpoenaed by the grand jury, not for classified information but documents bearing markings of classified documents and that picture, which we all saw, showed that those goods were found at mar-a-lago. and i know trump s defenders like kash patel has said he has a standing order to declassify all documents which has got to be bogus. but even accepting that, the thing is the obstruction case doesn t depend on classification
the department of justice latest filing on the classified documents seized during the fbi search of mar-a-lago. in the 18-page filing, trump s lawyer suggests by launching what they described as an unprecedented and unnecessarily raid on mar-a-lago, the justice department was criminalizing the former president s personal and presidential records in a secure setting. after the doj said it had evidence efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government s investigation and government records likely concealed and removed in the months before the august 8th search. in last night s response, trump s lawyers argued that the presidential records act has no enforcement mechanism suggesting the government has no basis to seize the files trump took to mar-a-lago and did not return even after those repeated requests about the national archives and a subpoena from the just department. trump s attorneys also argued privacy in response to the doj