US v Trump: Defense to claim due process violations made in FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid

During a hearing on Wednesday in the matter of the government’s classified documents case against former President Trump, his defense team will argue that Trump’s due process rights were violated when FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago property and attorney-client privilege was breached. 

The 11 a.m. hearing will be sealed, meaning no press or members of the public will be able to attend. The private hearing is being conducted in such a fashion to protect materials that can be either included under grand jury secrecy or that Trump’s team claims attorney-client privilege or work product protection applies.

Afterward, there will be another hearing at 1 p.m., which will be open to the public.

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Trump’s legal team is pushing back on the legality of the Mar-a-Lago raid. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, was raided by FBI agents in August 2022 and the Department of Justice reportedly recovered 15 boxes of classified materials from the estate.

Trump’s defense will make the case that evidence obtained during the search should be thrown out due to unconstitutionality, because the warrant “lacked particularity required by the Fourth Amendment.” 

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Former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is seen in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Further, the defense for the former president has claimed in a filing that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office does not have standing to invoke the good-faith exception to preserve evidence from the search, giving examples of the agents’ “bad faith” in conducting it. 

Lawyers for Trump will explain on Tuesday its argument that the government misled a judge in order to obtain the search warrant in the first place. 

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This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and partially redacted by the source, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8 FBI search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. (Department of Justice via AP)

The argument of Trump’s defense is also expected to rely on its claims that attorney-client privilege was breached by the FBI during the search. The initial filing from Trump’s lawyers requesting relief relating to the raid claimed the special counsel acted in an “extraordinary and unlawful” way to get access to legal communications between Trump and his lawyer, which are protected by attorney-client privilege. The lawyers claimed it was erroneous for a court to apply the crime-fraud exception, which removes certain protections for Trump lawyer M. Evan Corcoran under attorney-client privilege. 

This image, contained in the indictment against former President Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. (Justice Department via AP)

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According to Trump’s legal team, the elements of the crime-fraud exception were not met by the prosecution, particularly because they claim the communications between Trump and Corcoran were not furthering any crimes. 

The request from Trump’s defense, initially made in May, is that evidence seized during the raid and obtained in alleged violation of attorney-client privilege should be suppressed and that the superseding indictment from the special counsel’s office should be dismissed.