You cant have your cake and eat it: Special master tells Trump lawyers

Raymond
Dearie, the 78-year-old judge tasked as the special master in the probe into
classified documents found at former United States President Donald Trump’s
residence Mar-a-Lago, said Tuesday that Trump’s lawyers “can’t have the cake
and eat it to.” Dearie’s response was with regard Trump’s lawyers’ claims that
the former president had declassified the documents found during the FBI raid
at Mar-a-Lago.

At
Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Dearie insisted upon Trump’s lawyers to provide evidence
of the fact that the former president had declassified the documents found at
his residence. Dearie’s insistence was based on the fact that both Trump and
his representatives have said that the former president had declassified all
documents that he took home as president.

Also Read | Did Trump have ‘absolute authority to declassify documents’?

“You
can’t have your cake and eat it,” Judge Dearie told Trump lawyers.

Donald
Trump has claimed that the 11,000 documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago
were rightfully in his possession, including the over 100 documents that bear
classification marks. The classified documents are said to contain United States’
closely-guarded secrets, according to POLITICO.

Raymond
Dearie was picked as special master in the case by Judge Aileen Cannon to check
Donald Trump’s efforts to reclaim the material seized by FBI from Trump’s home.
Dearie was appointed judge in 1986 during the Ronald Reagan era.

Also Read | Joe Biden on Donald Trump’s ‘declassification’ claim: I’ve declassified everything in the world

Responding
to Trump’s lawyers’ comments on the status of classification of the documents
seized, Judge Dearie said in the absence of any evidence of declassification,
all that mattered were the markings on the documents. The special master
further said that since the current litigation filed by Trump is civil in
nature, the burden of proof is on the former president to substantiate any
assertion of privilege or any other protected interest in the documents.

Trump’s
lawyers appealed to the special master to initiate processes of getting security
clearances in order to review the allegedly classified documents. To this, prosecutor
Julie Edelstein said that some of the records are so sensitive in nature that
even members of the government’s investigative team haven’t received clearance
to see the documents.