hard virtual learning was, math and reading scores plummeting to their lowest levels in decades. welcome to the lead. i m kaitlan collins in for jake tapper. we start with our politics lead and the florida courtroom showdown unfold thing afternoon over the classified documents found at trump s mar-a-lago home. the hearing ended a little over an hour ago, with no immediate decision from the judge on whether or not to appoint a special master in the case. a special master would be a third party attorney put in charge of reviewing the evidence seized from trump s florida home, his newest lawyer in his first appearance as part of the legal team today argued a special master is needed to restore order and lower the temperature in the nation. and another trump attorney compared the battle over the classified documents to a dispute over an overdue library book. let s get straight to our reporter in florida. tell us more about what arguments these lawyers were making, but a
five filings from the justice department and trump s team together since friday. that s a lot of stuff that anyone would be filing in court. and the judge there has already signaled she is not going to be interested in much like these shenanigans when they re debating back and forth. the debate is about pretrial publicity. how much can donald trump and his team talk publicly about the information they re getting from the justice department as they work towards trial. and so the justice department has to turn over information evidence to donald trump and his team that they don t have at this time. there s all kinds of stuff that s out there that s public that donald trump would have access to. there s his own information that he and his team have collected as the january 6th investigation has unfurled. but in this situation, there s specific information that they haven t seen yet. and so the debate legally right now is that the justice department wants all of that to
they re facts. so yet the broadcast they will broadcast trump s version of events now. trump, whatever you think of him, has a right to respond to allegations in the indictment. both parties, the justice department and trump, will argue that their version of the facts, the truth, will ultimately be determined by a jury. if this goes to a trial, at the same time, democrats are already trying to smear any republican who might side with trump. hillary clinton not exactly squeaky clean herself, as you know, said republicans defending trump are delusional. it s going to be fascinating, i guess, in a bizarre and sad way to watch them spin themselves up. if you watched any of the news programs this weekend. i mean, their efforts to defend this man are truly beyond anything that i ever thought possible in our country. i mean, it is so profoundly disturbing how this could have been the break this could have been the opportunity to say, you know, thank you so much for
privilege, which means that it must be a government document, and you ve told me it s a personal document. metaphysically it cannot be both. he doesn t say those words it s no venn diagram where they overlap. reporter: another one he says there are a number of records you ve said is attorney/client privilege, but there is a third party involved so how can it be attorney/client privilege? and a strange letter apparently sent from the trump lawyers to the justice department. and he says to them, was it sent? and neither side wants to say yes or no we didn t receive it. and so he s frustrated. underlying all of this has sort of been and i understand legally it may not matter, but in the court of public opinion it might. and that is what is trump s motive for having all this stuff. separate from the fact that he repeatedly misled and lied about what he gave back and when.
literally those are the words, that is the question the special master in the mar-a-lago case raymond dearie is asking the justice department and trump s lawyers tonight. judge dearie voicing his frustration about the lack of direction he s receiving. he s got to go through thousands of documents seized from trump s florida residence. and dearie went on a conference call today and said, quote, where is the beef? i need some beef, i don t want to be dealing with nonsense objections and assertions. okay, outfront now co-editor in chief of just security. even as i read it, his frustration comes across. no patience for the lack of direction. trump is the one who fought to have the special master. he actually picked dearie to be there. and yet here we are. why has he been left adrift? so there are some strange legal arguments and missteps by the trump team, at least. dearie is saying, for example, i ve got this document you ve told me it s both executive