Former President Trump is seeking $100 million in damages from the Justice Department following the search of his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, the latest in a series of challenges to the recovery of confidential security records. your home.
The administrative action, filed last week but first reported on Monday, was filed the day before the two-year deadline for seeking compensation expired.
The move echoes several other court filings and campaign speeches Trump has given condemning the search of his home, accusing the Justice Department of political bias in its prosecution.
Trump’s home was searched after he was asked multiple times to return records to his home, including defying a subpoena to obtain the documents. Investigators ultimately found more than 300 records with confidential markings during the search, as well as other records from Trump’s time as president.
Trump has already made several failed challenges to the search warrant for his home, which was approved by a federal judge in Florida in 2022.
The review of that order was upheld by the courts, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals also reversed a decision by Judge Aileen Cannon after she appointed a special master to review presidential records collected from Trump’s home, ordering their return to the Justice Department .
Cannon also rejected an offer from Trump for a so-called Franks hearing on the Mar-a-Lago search, ruling that his legal team did not provide enough evidence to investigate whether the FBI included false or reckless information in its affidavit for the warrant. . Such a hearing would have begun the process of excluding evidence collected during the search from being used at trial.
Cannon, however, sided with Trump in ruling that special prosecutor Jack Smith was illegally appointed, an issue now before the appeals court.
The Department of Justice has 180 days to review the complaint, after which the matter may proceed in Federal Court.
“The intrusion into President Trump’s seclusion, the abuse of process by the Justice Department of Garland and FBI Wray, and the subsequent malicious prosecution are particularly egregious, showing intentional, arbitrary, oppressive, and malicious intent on the part of the Justice Department and the FBI,” Trump lawyer Daniel Epstein wrote in the filing.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
