By Brooke Mallory, OAN Staff
Friday, August 9, 2024 11:21 AM
Less than a month after Donald Trump overturned his lawsuit over classified documents, sources say the former president plans to file a lawsuit against the US Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking $100 million in damages over the 2022 raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate.
advertisement
Following the FBI raid on August 8thNumberIn January 2022, classified documents stored throughout President Trump’s presidency were seized from a resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump was subsequently indicted by Special Counsel Jack Smith on 37 felony counts. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
However, Trump defended himself, saying he declassified the documents before leaving office.
“In other words, they were declassified when I left the White House,” Trump said. Politico.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden only received a light reprimand for similarly taking classified documents while he was vice president under former President Barack Obama.
“Mr. Biden will likely present himself to the jury, as he did during our hearing, as a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a frail memory,” wrote special counsel Robert Hur, who served as the US attorney for Maryland under the Trump administration and was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland to lead the Biden investigation in January last year.
The “double standard” between Biden and Trump shocked many Americans, with the right demanding that the rule of law be properly and fairly applied, while the left argued that Trump’s classified documents case was different and far worse than Biden’s.
“This has been proven to be a two-tiered justice system and unconstitutional selective prosecution!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“I found all of the classified documents,” Biden told a ghostwriter in February 2017, a month after he left office as vice president, downstairs in the home he rented in Virginia.
“The ghostwriter deleted the recordings of his conversations with Biden after learning about the special counsel’s investigation, but kept the transcripts, Harr said,” Harr said. Reuters.
First note obtained Fox News Trump’s lawyers said they were arguing that the Justice Department raids were conducted with the “clear intent to carry out political persecution.”
The document denounces what it calls “unlawful conduct perpetrated by the United States against President Trump,” citing abuses of investigative process, malicious prosecution and invasion of privacy.
Trump’s lawsuit also accuses FBI Director Christopher Wray of conducting a “malicious prosecution” against Trump, as well as Attorney General Merrick Garland, who appointed Smith in 2022 to oversee two federal investigations and the final indictment.
Additionally, Trump has previously accused President Biden, to whom Garland reports directly, of orchestrating a “witch hunt” against him.
“Mr. Garland and Mr. Wray should never have authorized the search and subsequent indictment of President Trump because it is well-established practice with former Presidents of the United States to use non-enforcement means to obtain U.S. records,” said Daniel Epstein, the Trump lawyer who filed the memo.
He also said that at the very least, Garland and Wray should have “sought consent” from Trump and informed his legal staff.
In filing his lawsuit on Monday, Epstein asked the Justice Department to respond within 180 days. If no settlement is reached, the case will be sent to federal court in the Southern District of Florida.
“What President Trump is doing here is not just standing up for himself. He’s standing up for all Americans who believe in the rule of law and who believe that they should hold their government accountable when they’ve been wronged,” Epstein told reporters.
This follows a ruling on July 15th.Number U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon ruled to accept President Trump’s bid to dismiss Smith’s federal lawsuit.
The judge cited the Appointments Clause of the Constitution and declared that Smith had been improperly appointed and funded, and the entire case was ultimately dismissed.
“The Court believes that Special Counsel Smith’s prosecution of this case violates two structural foundations of our constitutional system: Congress’ role in appointing constitutional offices and Congress’ role in authorizing statutory expenditures,” Judge Cannon wrote in his 93-page order.
Moreover, the Supreme Court ruled last month that the president is immune from prosecution if the acts were committed while he was performing his primary duties.
In a recent memo, Epstein cited Supreme Court decisions and Judge Cannon’s ruling to argue that “there is no constitutional basis for the searches or subsequent prosecutions.”
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
Stay up to date! Receive the latest news directly in your email for free. Sign up here: https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisement below
Please share this post!
