GOP AGs File Amicus Brief to Back Trump in FBI Raid (Newsmax)
By Brian Freeman | Wednesday, 21 September 2022 12:58 PM EDT
Eleven Republican attorneys general denounced the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home as a "ransacking" at the hands of the Biden administration in an amicus brief they filed to support Trump, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.
The GOP attorneys general made the move after the Justice Department appealed a court decision to stop the agency from looking at classified documents taken from Mar-a-Lago until they can be reviewed by a special master. The DOJ argued delaying its probe would harm national security.
The DOJ has specifically requested, as part of its appeal, access to some materials it believes cause "the most serious and immediate harm to the government and the public," according to the Examiner.
The court gave the special master until Nov. 30 to complete his review of the classified documents taken in the raid.
However, the amicus brief, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, stated the DOJ’s intentions should be looked at "through jaundiced eyes."
"Joe Biden's commitment to weaponizing the DOJ to go after political opponents should deeply concern all Americans," Paxton wrote in a statement. "Given Biden's track record, combined with his rhetoric demonizing anyone he disagrees with, the courts must be on high alert to the ways in which DOJ may abuse its power to punish President Donald Trump."
The amicus brief attempts to show the courts why the DOJ cannot be trusted to have immediate access to the classified documents, presenting four examples in which the Republicans claim the Biden administration has "leveraged its power to engage in questionable political gamesmanship," the Examiner reported.
The FBI took more than 11,000 documents during its raid of Mar-a-Lago last month, with several being considered the highest level of classification, as part of a probe by the DOJ into whether Trump violated the Espionage Act by taking classified documents after leaving the White House.
Paxton was joined by 10 other attorneys general in signing the brief: Ashley Moody of Florida, Todd Rokita of Indiana, Daniel Cameron of Kentucky, Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Lynn Fitch of Mississippi, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Austin Knudsen of Montana, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, Sean Reyes of Utah, and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia.