Trump’s attorneys insisted that his possession of sensitive information should have come as no surprise…reports Asian Lite News
Former president Donald Trump’s legal team on Wednesday dismissed the government’s “unjustified” pursuit of classified documents at his home and said the raid in which they were seized was legally dubious and unnecessary.
Responding to a bombshell filing in which the US Department of Justice said top secret documents were “likely concealed” at Trump’s estate to obstruct an FBI probe, his attorneys insisted that his possession of sensitive information should have come as no surprise.
“The purported justification for the initiation of this criminal probe was the alleged discovery of sensitive information contained within the 15 boxes of presidential records,” a court filing by Trump’s team said.
“But this ‘discovery’ was to be fully anticipated given the very nature of presidential records. Simply put, the notion that presidential records would contain sensitive information should have never been cause for alarm,” it said.
Trump’s lawyers repeated their call for an independent review of all material seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate and described the August 8 FBI raid on the property as “unprecedented, unnecessary, and legally unsupported.”
The Department of Justice painted a distinctly different picture in its late Tuesday filing opposing the appointment of a “special master” to review the documents, saying that highly sensitive materials were recovered from Trump’s home.
Strikingly, the department’s filing included a photograph of color-coded documents spread out over a carpet, marked “SECRET” and “TOP SECRET.”
The inclusion of the photograph also sparked condemnation by Trump’s team.
“The government’s response gratuitously included a photograph of allegedly classified materials, pulled from a container and spread across the floor for dramatic effect,” it said.
Truth Social app fails to get Google nod
Truth Social, the social media platform launched by Donald Trump to counter Twitter, is yet to get approval from Google Play Store and the former US President’s company was working “in good faith with Google”.
Google has notified Truth Social of “several violations of standard policies in their current app submission”, reiterating that “having effective systems for moderating user-generated content is a condition of our terms of service for any app to go live on Google Play”.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) said in a statement that it has “no desire to litigate its business matters in the public sphere, but for the record, has promptly responded to all inquiries from Google”.
It said that the Truth Social Android app complies with Google’s policies without compromising the promise to be “a haven for free speech”.
“As our users know, Truth Social is building a vibrant, family-friendly environment that works expeditiously to remove content that violates its Terms of Service, which independent observers have noted are among the most robust in the industry,” the company said.
It alleged that some of its competitors’ apps are allowed in the Google Play Store despite “rampantly violating Google’s prohibition on sexual content and other policies, whereas Truth Social has zero tolerance for sexually explicit content”.
Truth Social was launched in the Apple App Store on February 21.
According to reports, Truth Social is strapped for cash and facing tech and legal troubles.
“The most immediate problem is the platform’s stalled SPAC, initially planned as a way to publicly trade shares in the new company without the diligence of an IPO,” reports The Verge.
An SEC filings show that the company has lost over $6 million in the first half of this year and hasn’t generated any revenue.
