(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump’s legal team filed a response Wednesday to the Department of Justice over the Mar-a-Lago search.
NewsNation’s Dan Abrams said Tuesday night that the DOJ’s filing makes it clear they gave Trump and his attorneys numerous opportunities to cooperate.
Abrams also brought attention to how the DOJ filing has drawn polarized political reactions. He says liberal-leaning media insist Trump will be charged, while conservative media continues to question the FBI.
During an appearance on NewsNation’s “Banfield,” former federal prosecutor Shan Wu said that the Trump legal team was trying to “blur some lines.”
“They’re really conflating some basic first year concept law school about the Fourth Amendment.” Wu said. “They’re putting so much emphasis on ‘this was the former president’s home.'”
“The constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure, that’s safeguarded by judges who have to find probable cause … They’re trying to really attack the search warrant, without attacking it by asking for the Special Master. And it’s very light on legal citation,” Wu said.
The Tuesday DOJ filing included a single photo of some of the documents found, which Trump’s lawyers said were spread on the floor by FBI agents for “dramatic effect.”
In the photo, papers bearing classification markings — at least five marked “Top Secret // SCI” — are laid out on the floor next to a Banker’s Box with picture frames, one displaying a Time magazine cover.
Another guest on “Banfield,” former Assistant FBI Director Tom Fuentes, said the photo “was an extremely unprofessional act on whoever put those files on the floor and took that picture.”