The FBI seized more than 150 documents marked “classified” when it searched the residence of former President Donald Trump earlier this month. That’s according to The New York Times, which reports the sheer number of top-secret documents held by Trump ignited intense concern at the Justice Department and triggered the criminal investigation that led to the August 8 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. On Monday, Trump’s lawyers filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Florida, asking a judge to appoint an independent arbiter known as a “special master” to review whether the documents were seized properly by the FBI. If District Judge Aileen Cannon approves the request, it could slow a federal criminal investigation into whether Trump broke the Espionage Act and the Presidential Records Act. Judge Cannon was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 2020 by then-President Trump. It’s now believed Trump took about 300 classified documents to Mar-a-Lago.
