The DOJ said there may still be secret documents it hasn't recovered from Trump in Mar-a-Lago investigation

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The DOJ said there may still be secret documents it hasn't recovered from Trump in Mar-a-Lago investigation
Former President Donald Trump's Palm Beach estate, Mar-A-Lago was searched by the FBI Monday evening.Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images, Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
  • The DOJ said there may be classified documents it hasn't recovered in its Mar-a-Lago investigation.
  • The claim was in a court filing against a ruling blocking access to the documents.
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The Justice Department (DOJ) has said that it may not have recovered all of the classified records being held at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

In a new court filing, the DOJ said that federal judge Aileen Cannon's order issued Monday, temporarily stopping its review of all of the records retrieved by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago in an August 8 search, presented a national security risk and requested access to them be restored.

Barring the DOJ from viewing the hundreds of classified documents retrieved, prosecutors said, "could impede efforts to identify the existence of any additional classified records that are not being properly stored — which itself presents the potential for ongoing risk to national security."

The DOJ said it was limiting its request to a set of 100 classified documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago, which Trump under no circumstance has a right to retain.

"This motion is limited to ... the seized classified records because those aspects of the order will cause the most immediate and serious harms to the government and the public," the department said in its court filing.

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In a separate court filing last week, the DOJ released an inventory of items it had taken from Mar-a-Lago on August 8, including 48 folders with classified markings that were empty, sparking concern among national security experts.

The DOJ is investigating whether Trump wrongly took government records, including highly classified information, to his Florida resort after leaving office.

Trump has claimed he declassified the records before leaving office, and also that some are shielded from prosecutors under executive privilege rules, which protect some private presidential communications.

On Monday, Cannon agreed to Trump's request for an independent official, or special master, to be appointed to review documents retrieved by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago in its August 8 search and for the FBI to stop its examination of the records. This is to establish, Cannon said, if any should be held back under executive privilege rules.

The DOJ said that if Cannon did not restore access to the classified documents, it would appeal against the special master ruling.

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