department to respond to trump's request for a special master to review documents seized from mar-a-lago. their deadline is midnight, so, getting close. the response could come at any minute. it is expected to be roughly 40 pages. that is double the courts usual limit, but the doj got permission to submit a long response, because apparently we've got a lot to say. so let's bring in cnn senior legal justice correspondent mr. evan perez, attorney mr. george conway, and legal analyst elliott williams. good evening sir's, one and all. evan, i'm going to start with you, because the doj, just minutes away from that midnight deadline, literally, they've got an hour, right, to respond to trump's special master. >> yeah, i keep refreshing my screen, trying to see if, you know, it's like waiting, waiting, waiting. >> are you looking for, what do you expect? >> well, we're waiting to see the filing come in. and don, the fact that they are asking for double the number of

pages that they usually have in the southern district of florida tell us the justice department believes they need to talk, they need to say some more about what the former president was alleging in his lawsuit against the government asking for the special master. there are a lot of things that the former president said in that filing, obviously a lot of it are his grievances about how the fbi in the justice department are biased against him. but some of it was about how cooperative he has been with this effort to get these documents back. so, i think you're gonna hear a little bit more about that in this filing. there is a lot of narrative that we still do not know about, beginning obviously in 2021 when the national archives first approached the trump team and ask them to please return these documents that belong to you and me and all americans. >> when you're looking for, george?

>> well, i'm going to be interested to see if they do contain more of a factual narrative that was in the search warrant affidavit. but i think we are going to see basically some mostly legal argument. and the argument is going to be, your honor, there is just no need for a special master here. there is no point to it. the special master is something they only really use for attorney-client privilege situations, where the fbi is executing a search warrant on a lot of us, where there could be dozens of potential clients who have nothing to do with the investigation whose materials could be swept up in a search. and that is the reason why the special master device is being used in situations like the cohen search warrant and the giuliani search warrant. but it really does not have any bearing on the situation where there is the principal issue of executive privilege. and should not, because here the former president is asserting the privilege against the executive.

there is no basis for him to keep documents that belong to the executive from the executive branch. >> yeah, again, we are awaiting those documents, the response from the justice department, trump's team's request for a special master. everyone is looking down at their devices, trying to refresh them to see if it comes in. it will come in at any moment. in the meantime, let me bring in elliott. elliott, if this trump appointed judge does grant a special master, what happens next? how will this person be chosen, and how long could it take to go through all the documents? >> look, picking up on georgia's point, the problem is we do not know, because the scenario has never come up before, right? special master's are incredibly common in cases where you have attorney client privilege. it's sort of, is this privilege that exist between everyone who has ever had an attorney, right, the things you say to your attorney. it's never really been a scenario in american history where a president sought to assert executive privilege, to protect documents as georgians

said, against the executive branch, the justice department, from investigating either him or other people. and so, that ties into this question of, how do you even find a special master to look at these things? number one, you are going to need some windy with either very high security clearance, or can get one. because the fact that they're going to have to look at really sensitive documents, and somebody who is not going to be seen as politically tainted. i just think it is going to be very hard to find who the special master would be. there is not a roadmap in this document, to be perfectly clear. and part of, i backed evan's point, part of why the justice department needs 40 pages to lay this out is because of the spell of very complex legal issues of what happens when a presence he could assert the privilege against his own government. so, it's just, it may seem obvious, people may say of course he can't do that, or the department cannot do that, but it just has never been done before. and the justice department has to lay it out. >> so, evidence, trump's special master request was part of a 27-page lawsuit filed with,

you know, trump believers and claims that his constitutional rights were violated. do expect the doj to correct the record tonight? >> i do, i do think that that is part of what you are probably going to see, because one of the things we know, don, is that the documents we have seen released from the justice department so far have been dated, frankly, the affidavit is the thing that they presented to the judge to get the search warrant. so, now, for the first time, we are going to have the justice department and their ability to address some of the things that have happened since the mar-a-lago search. so, they are going to want to come in, and at least try and correct some of the record, again, about the level of cooperation that they had from the former president. what exactly happened between june, when they had that one meeting where they were able to get some documents? what haven't been, then and august, when they had to conduct a search, when they believe they had reason to go

back in there and do it with a search warrant. there is something that happened, and so, we are going to see from the justice department perhaps something that explains some of that. i think that's what i'm looking for in this document, because i think it is going to be helpful for us to understand this unprecedented situation. >> elliot what did you want to say? >> think about it, one of the problems is, what do you want to do -- imagine in the justice department did in fact sweep up documents that they shouldn't have had. let's just pretend that they. did now, if it was attorney-client privilege, they would figure some way to get the documents back to -- or is personal property, the justice department get back to that person. it's their trinket of a stuffed cat, i don't know, if it's on the counter, swept up, give it back to the person. here, these do not belong to the person who has them in his possession. there is a, you know, they're not private possessions. so, where do they go? and what you do with them,

that's another thing that has to be sorted by the justice department in the judge. and it's actually a very, very complicated. question now, it certainly should not be donald trump. but then, what do you do with them in any event? but it is not just something you can say, they do not belong to him, you just have to fill that out in a very complicated way. >> right, george, what do you see as team trump's strategy here? are they just trying to hold up the investigation through any legal challenge? >> yeah, i think that is what they're doing. i think they're essentially just throwing stuff around and see if anything will stick. i mean, the argument that they made about a special master was made without any factual assertion about attorney client privilege, and without any factual assertions made other than in the brief. normally, you are supposed to submit an affidavit. that's with the government did, in fact, when it got a search warrant. and i think what is going to be interesting is that the justice department is actually willing to respond with facts, facts that are going to probably be harmful to the former president. for example, the had the former

president asked one of the forms released of the former president asked for was a more detailed list of what was taken from mar-a-lago. well, that, if he, they may actually give it, they probably gave that already to the judges, probably going to unseal. they see some of it when the seal is lifted. there is certainly no reason why other than national security wise from these documents cannot be described in more detail. certainly trump has knowledge of what's in there. and certainly the level of classification of some these documents can be described. and that will be further damning to the president, because the former president, because he at one point's lawyers represented the classified material that he's given back. >> sounds like they're in a pickle, evan. trump's allies keep claiming the former president be treated differently than hillary clinton. what is the truth on that? does trump have himself to

blame for all of this? >> well, kind of, i mean, because he made such a big deal about hillary clinton and said as a result of the fact that she had a server in her home where she held some documents that were various classified levels, because of that, they wanted to essentially increased the penalties for mishandling classified information. so, in 2018, the former president, well, he was president at the time, he signed a law that took the penalty from one year penalty to five years, making it a felony. so, that is part of the consequence of making a big deal about what hillary did. and so, the president really, you know, is being judged on the merits of, on the basis of a law that he himself signed. he said he wanted tougher law for mishandling of classified information, well, you got it. so now, he may feel the consequence of. that >> is that a fair

comparison, to compare what happened to hillary clinton, george elliot, raise your hands if you respond to that. george, go ahead. >> it's not fair, it's not fair in the slightest. because there is only a limited amount of classified information that was found in mrs. clinton's emails. and this was stuff that she -- that he personally took out of, donald trump personally directed that these materials be taken out of the white house. mrs. clinton cooperate with the investigation into her email server, and on trump basically delayed for a year. talk about, asked the question, whether or not he did it to himself, he absolutely did do it to himself. i suspect that if in 2021, when the national archives started first asking about where some these documents, if you had just simply taken all the documents that he had taken from the white house and return them, we would not be here today. instead, he's in serious legal jeopardy because he maintain

these documents, despite all the efforts by the national archives to get him to retain them, have them returned. and then he returned some of them. and then was apparently deceptive about whether or not he returned all of them. and, you know, there was a subpoena, he obviously did not cooperate with that. so, that is why there was a search warrant. so, he has basically dug himself a whole. he has basically -- the justice department essentially gave him a rope, gave him latitude, gave him a break, a narrative to. and basically he took that rope and he's hung himself with it. >> thank you, chance. i appreciate it. so, we are all standing by. we are awaiting the doj response to the trump team's plea for a special master. the deadline is at mealtime. plus in the midst of the investigation, the continued threat to our democracy, the midterms are just weeks away. what will all this mean at the ballot box?

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okay, can, as we are talking about, we are awaiting the doj's response for don trump's request for a special master. that has some democrats been sounding the alarm with the growing threats facing our country's democracy as we head into the midterms. my next guest is one of, them rhode island congressman david cicilline. he joins me now. he's also the author of the new book, house on fire, fighting for democracy in the age of political arson. now that is a title. that's a title. good to see you. so, any minute now we're waiting on the doj to file this response to trump's request for the special master.

what do you expect to learn? and you think it's going to affect this investigation? >> i expect the department is going to object to a special master and say it's unnecessary, but of the court decides to do it it might require some additional weeks. it won't change the subject substance of this case. it's a president who has taken classified documents out of the white house, taken to his personal residence, where they don't belong. he has endangered the national security of the united states, maybe of individuals who have helped collect evidence to keep us safe. this is just one more in a long list of incidents of misconduct of this president. it's why i wrote the book, to really help sound the alarm that we are facing an extraordinary threat to our democracy. >> speaking of that list, i want to take a step back or talk about that. here we are in another trump scandal. a mishandling of top secret documents, classified materials, former president refusing to return the documents. you were an impeachment manager

in trump's second trial. he has been embroiled in so many very serious proceedings, but has yet to face consequences. do you think that's going to change? >> yes. that's the danger of this moment. the republicans who are part of this ultra maga crowd have excuse the conduct of this president. they help facilitate the big lie by confirming or suggesting that he in fact won the election that was stolen from him. that led to the events of january six, with the president, where the former president incited a violent insurrection of the government of the united states, refused to allow the peaceful transfer of power for the first time ever in history, and then engaged and other efforts to corrupt elections. he tried to affect election results in states like georgia, attempted to corrupt corrupt the election results. this is a president who has

engaged in lawless behavior. the republican party has fabricated excuses for him, i've devoted to the cult of trumpism. it's the classic definition of authoritarianism and fascism. it's stoking division and it is supporting the president no matter what he says. it's promoting the big lie. it's the idea of obsessing on a plot. the republican party is no longer your parents republican party. this is a party of corruption in chaos and insurrection and qanon and marjorie taylor greene and the big lie. they have lost the right to control our health care, our economy, or our democracy. i think that's what we're gonna prevail on. >> you just said fascism. the president used semi fascism last week. i noticed that you said also ultra maga lies. is that a talking point? have you guys gotten together

with democrats? >> i read about this in my book, there's a checklist for fascism, and it has a whole list of things, obsession with a plot, machismo, militarism, rejection of modernism, obsession with authoritarianism, selective populism, promoting untruthful statements, stoking divisions, threatening violence to achieve political ends. go through that checklist and donald trump are satisfied almost every element. you can meddle with the words, but the reality, is this is an authoritarian president engaged in anti-democratic behaviors that are threatening american democracy. >> yesterday you said people we see like lindsey graham who say they are allowed trump to get away with what he is doing or there will be more violence, that is a fascist statement. it's the use of violence for political means. >> that's the definition. >> you mean. that >> absolutely. basically saying, donald trump, if you don't allow him to engage in this conduct and not

be held accountable, if you try to hold him accountable and demonstrate that nobody in america including a former president is above the law, there will be violence. the classic threat of violence to achieve a political agenda. even though he lost the election he has to stand on this or there will be violence, there was violence. >> when you say things like fascism you are giving the evidence of what you believe are fascists statements and what fascism is. but do you think that further divides us by actually calling people fascist? i said moments ago, a republican and democrat, and the republicans said, he's calling all of us fascist. >> what i said is that, i don't think anyone is calling all of, that fascist behavior. anti democratic behavior. if you look throughout the history those are classic examples of behavior that result in fascism. we have a responsibility to call this out. that is not to say every republican is doing it or promoting this. but those in fact are

anti-democratic activities that are threatening american democracy. we need to call it out for what it is. every single time we stand up against the poisonous lies that are undermining our democracy, we are defending the democracy that we live in, and we've got to do that. >> do you think republicans realize that? he made a distinction, i watched the speech and read the transcription, he made the distinction between sensible republicans and ultra maga republicans, when he talked about this idea of fascism, semi fascism philosophy. do you think republicans know he is making a distinction in the doing it on purpose? >> of course. he said it. we shouldn't obsess about the terminology. when we're talking about's behavior that is anti-democratic. a president to refuse the peaceful transition of power and incited a violent insurrection against the government of the united states, corrupted the election, refused to admit he lost, has taken documents for the white house

that can compromise national security. and the list goes on. we are waiting >> we are waiting those documents. again, that the book's house on fire, fighting for democracy in the age of political arson, by david cicilline. >> giuliani. >> so the doj's response to team trump's requests expected any moment now. plus, a landing area district attorney fani wellness, while she is citing wrap lyrics in her indictment of 26 alleged gang members, but should these lyrics be treated as evidence or as art? we'll discuss. next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> here is the breaking news on

those documents. a response from the doj for trump's request for a special master. we have the information. the filing is. and we're gonna get straight to cnn's sara murray in washington d.c., with the very latest. sarah, do we know what it is or are we just hearing that it has dropped? >> it has dropped. it's before midnight, so you're welcome for that, i guess, thank the justice department. the team and i are still going through it. this of course is the filing. the justice department responding to donald trump's response demand for a special master. he had concerns about privilege material. he had concerns that some type of justice department had gone over the top, trump had insisted in his motion that he had been very cooperative with the justice department, and what we are seeing here is a lengthy response from the justice department, which we

expect is going to lay out their legal arguments for why they don't believe a special master is necessary in this case. and also, why they believe they went to these lengths into the unprecedented staff of stirred searching the former presidents residence. but as i said, the team is going through this. we're looking for the highlights and the new details. >> evan perez is going through it as well. i want you to stand by, sara, and help us with this. we get to evan in a moment. at the meantime a formal federal prosecutor elie honig. elie, this is coming in four minutes before the deadline, which is mid light night, which we were supposed to expected. that is a deadline. do you think they took this time and they added 20 pages? usually there's a 20 page limit. this is about 40 pages. there is something going on. here the doj wants to make its case. >> this is a statement moment for doj. it's the first chance to address donald trump's accusations in a robust way. i think we are going to get some detail about what was in

the documents themselves. we know very little about the documents that were actually seized during the search warrant. we've seen the receipt for property. but it's very general. it is box of documents, really the most important thing we learned is that several of those documents were classified at the highest level, top secret s c i. i think we will get a glimpse into what specifically is in those documents. i think it will be interesting to see what doj's position is here. i think they are going to oppose a special master, but are they going to propose a fallback position, which is judge, if you do appoint a special master, we like to do it in a way that does not derail this thing, the does not take us out of this thing for months at a time. >> i'm not gonna try to summarize it, but i will tell, you donald j trump, plaintive versus united states of america defendant, united states response to a motion for judicial oversight and judicial relief, and on august 22nd 2020, 14 days after the department of justice executed a search warrant at the premises and

palm beach florida, 33 -- here even after the premises the property, very small print here, and it just goes, on donald j trump. >> the images there. the 14 days, i think, they remind took donald trump's legal team 14 days to even put in this motion, when they could have and should have put it in on day one. i think that will be one of their arguments. it will be sort of too late. that ship has sailed. >> let's see. i hereby certify as follows, i have been designated to service custodian of the records of the office of donald j trump, i understand that this is certification made to comply with the subpoena. i just went to the end to see what happened here. there are some things that are redacted. evan perez is going to join us. now evan, i'm gonna go over this. i just got, it but you have had a chance to go over longer than i have. have you come to conclusions about the special master? what is going on? >> well, don, justice department is saying that the

request, the relief the release that donald trump's team is asking for should not be granted at this point, especially since it's not clear that he even has a right to make this request or even to go to this judge to ask for this request. but i will call your attention to, i think, the control room already has a picture that is attached, one of the attachments to the document, which shows the condition that some of these documents were found in. if you look closely you will see some of the classification markings on their. you can see the disorganized way that some of these documents that the fbi, when they conducted their search, this is how they found them and they took a photograph. clearly, here, depicting some of the classification markings. if you look closely you will see top secret, secret. it really goes to why the

justice department felt they had to go in there. and the narrative, there is a narrative that is described on page nine. we have talked about this june meeting that the president's legal team was given a subpoena and told to turn over any documents that had classification markings. and so they showed up in june and they are told, this is it. they are given an envelope with it. what we have heard from the president, the former president's team is that this was a pleasant meeting. they were very cooperative. what's the justice department says, however, is that the fbi agents were there were not permitted, were permitted to go to the storage room where these documents were being held, but they were explicitly told that they could not open the boxes, they could not look inside anything that remained in the storage room. that does not portray the same level of cooperation that the former president has been

claiming. that has been part of the effort, i think, part of this document is to correct the record that we have heard from the former president. to try to explain they have been productive cooperative. >> let me get when you are seeing on your screen here. this is a description of the photo that is included. the team has review the materials and all the other team did not segregated's attorney client privilege. boxes containing classification markings and in all over 100 unique documents with classification markings. that is more than twice the amount produced on june 3rd, 2022. that was the one before, right? in response to the grand jury subpoena were seized. certain of the documents had colored, had cover sheets indicating their classification status, attachment i'm sure it's a thing, the fbi photograph certain documents and classified currencies

recovered from the container in the 45 office classification levers ranged from confidential to top secret information. certain documents included additional sensitive compartments the signified limited distribution. some instances even the fbi counter intelligence attorney conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents. hold on, evan. >> first of all, this is a national security nightmare, to have documents of this level of sensitivity splayed out on the floor of a hotel. i think the visual is quite visceral. it packs a punch and really shows you what those agents found. a couple of important things about the passes you just read. first of all, what doj is saying here is, we did our own internal review. we did that because doj suggested, recommends it in the prior papers. they said once we pulled out attorney client privileged documents and kept them away from the investigative teams,

we were left with double, approximately double the amount of documents that were given us, to us when we services peña. so in other words doj tried to do this the easy way. they served a subpoena on donald trump's team. they've got a certain amount of documents, and we're told, essentially, this is everything, and then they did the search warrant and found more than twice the amount of documents with classification markings that had not been produced. i think that's an important detail of the question is why did doj feel the search warrant was necessary. it is answers that question. >> our national security expert juliette hianan joins us now. you have seen the picture of the documents up on the screen, and you heard our description of it. what is your assessment at this point? >> the picture is both so damning to the trump people in terms of any ability for them to claim that this was a

regular process, a formal process, why didn't they just ask for? them they were willing to compromise. then the pictures of papers like that strewn on the floor belie any defense that there was carefulness on the trump part or they were willing to abide. just picking up on what elie was saying earlier on illegal stuff and the claims to l.a. and other lawyers, the national security implications are huge because what it shows from this just one picture is that mar-a-lago essentially was an open book to anyone willing to come in. those documents are not secure. not simply for anyone randomly passing by but also for foreign intelligence agents or foreigners who might have interest in it. that's a huge challenge, i want to say, and i keep saying to the biden administration. we focus on trump in this regard, and the court finally filing tonight was clear on.

that the president united states interests in getting these documents and not giving them back to trump, they make that clear in the filing, that he has no claim to them, no right to them, and even if there is some arguable privilege that they are talking about, that it is overwhelmed by the national security implications of giving anything or any legal injunction to the trump people, is because right now that disclosure, that national security information and it's quantity, which we didn't have a good sense of before, is a present challenge for the united states interests and our national security. we have to remember this is not just a legal case, it has to do with our intelligence agencies when we try to figure out what the heck was donald trump doing with them and water the ongoing challenges to human intelligence sources, programs, intelligence efforts, and also our allies who are looking at

that picture and saying, you know, what did we share with the united states? what could possibly be in those closets and on the floor and in those boxes? you think we're doing an intelligence assessment? israel britain, france, australia, you name it, they are doing intelligence estimates as well right now. >> okay, so listen, as we're getting more information here, i just want to say, if you guys go to page 32, it's sort of sums it up at the end. it talks about, page 32, 29 through 30 talks about how attorney-client privilege at the bottom of 30, how attorney-client privilege does not compute. here they are saying that it doesn't. it doesn't make sense. at the top of page 33 it says, it talks about the reasons before, the court should not appoint a special master, but if it does, this is what the

justice department says, but if it does the below conditions should apply. for all the above reasons the court should not appoint a special master. if the court does, decide to do so, as directed by the court, the government proposes the following conditions. first, the court should direct the parties to confer and submit a joint list of proposed candidates by september 7th of 2022. and then it goes on to list a second special master required to submit an affidavit concerning any potential basis of disqualification before the court issues an appointment order. and then third, the court should split sofi the following duties and impose the following limitations. >> this is precisely as we anticipated at the top of the show. doj is arguing, you should not appoint a special master as it's not necessary. but if you do, we need to do this on a very strict, very quick timeline. in fact, under the timeline the doj proposes here, a centrally,

they want this done by the end of september, which is quite quick. i think doj's right to request that, because if you look at the michael cohen case, where there is a special master, that took four months for the special master to review the documents. doj does not have the patience for that, and they are not willing to wait for more than a month. i think they are offering a middle ground here if they lose in front of the judge and their other arguments. >> a lot of this is legally's. it's just coming. in but i want you guys, everybody, turn to page ten. evan and elie, the government beloved evidence the government records were likely concealed and removed from the storage room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government investigation. this included evidence indicating the boxes formerly in the storage room were not returned prior to councils review. we will >> that's a big deal. we got hints of this in the affidavit for the search warrant because the affidavit said we told them keep the

documents in a certain location but now, judge, we need to search all these different locations within the premises. and your doj saying that's what's happening. they were concerned about potential instruction, documents removed, who knows what was done with them. but this is why one of the three listed crimes was obstruction. i think we have a little more detail on that. >> evan i want to go ahead, but julie, i can hear something in the back at ground. you said it's a big deal. >> right. i called attention to page ten because one of the things we have been wondering is, everyone's been asking, why do the justice department, why did the fbi believe they had to take this action, this unprecedented action to do a search after months and months and during which the former president says that they have been very cooperative? that paragraph that you just read a part of, this included evidence indicating that boxes formerly in the storage room were not returned prior to the council's review.

watch this indicates is that there were boxes that were inside the storage room, in the basement of mar-a-lago, the the justice department and the agents had set eyes on. apparently were subsequently removed from that room and then did not come back. so we previously reported the they obtained footage, surveillance footage, from that area in mar-a-lago. so perhaps that is what they are referring to here. they also say they have witnesses who told them specifically that there were documents elsewhere in the property, despite the fact that he had already signed this declaration saying that there was nothing else here. again, goes to the question of obstruction and a question of, was someone trying to hide things from this investigation? and why do they take this extraordinary step? >> let's go on and read the next page, the top of page 11. against that backdrop, which is what we were just talking about,

and relying on the probable cause that the investigation had developed at the time, on august five, 2022, the government applied to magistrate judge reinhart for a search and seizure warrant which cited three states doses. willful retention of national retains, concealment removal of government records, obstruction of federal investigation, on the same day. judge reinhart found that probable cause existed that evidence of each of the crimes would be found at the premises and he authorized the search warrant. juliet cayenne? >> this is, there are two things going on at this part of the filing. the first is that they essentially are saying we did everything we could until we were at the moment when it became clear, this is important in the chronology, that some

materials had been given back to national archives, but some were held on to. that division of what documents had decided to send in which he was trying to keep was a lightbulb for a lot of us was what is it about these documents that he's all of a sudden asserting a privilege and not the others? that's going to make a lot of people nervous in terms of whether these are national security documents. a lot of them are highly classified. that's the first part of this, the very deliberate process by doj to wait until they realized they could no longer wait to get this group of documents. the second part of this, or i how i read this is, the decision to grant the ability for them to come in was not only made by an objective magistrate judge. this was the doj doing it. but it was done quickly.

it was the idea that we had run out of time, that he the judge had granted it within essentially hours of getting the request. that, i think, is a counter narrative established by trump supporters, that if this were a big deal, why did it take so long? what we are seeing is the doj recognized what a big idea was, was trying to get the trump people to recognize that, and then had to go to a court to do that, to finally get this information. that, i think, a part of where this motion is doing is answering some of the criticisms you are hearing by trump supporters. at the same time, i have to say, the one line that everyone should remember is, doj specifically says, these are not his documents, period. they're just not his. why are we even having this discussion? these are not donald trump's documents. that is why at the very and

they say you're gonna grant this magistrate, that he has to have secure the master has to have security clearance. these are not donald trump documents. these are the united states documents. >> sam i want to bring you in because, if you look at what we have been reading now from his last response to the doj, it seems damning for a team trump. they will give their response to this, but i am looking at, is i'm going through this and everyone is talking, this is just page 12 and it talks about an august 8th execution of a search warrant of the premise. the government sees 33 bosses containers or items that contained over 100 classified records, including information classified at the highest levels, and it says pursuant to the above search protocols, the government seized 35 items of evidence, mostly boxes, here in after they will refer to the seized evidence, falling within the scope of the search warrant,

because they were documents with classification markings that appear to be government records. three classified documents were not located in the boxes but rather were located in the desks, in the 45 office. they were also seized for the search warrant protocols discussed above the seized documents involve documents filed held together with classification markings. some of these were in storage boxes but others were apparently according to this sitting on his desk. >> yeah, that's right. this is coming after the trump team had already received a subpoena, after the trump team had already said, signs documents saying we've handed everything over, pursuant to the subpoena, and then this is what investigators found when they showed up in the search. if you look on page 13 of this document, you can see the justice department pointing out that after june 3rd they signed this document saying everything

had been handed over and they point out that the fbi, in a matter of hours, found twice as many documents with classification markings then the quote diligent search the former presidents team said they had done. then the trump team was being entirely cooperative entirely documents they put their, they said. they also said that on june 3rd that representatives for the former president said there were only documents that were located in the storage room. they went into find classified documents in the storage room and in the former president's office. >> notwithstanding the that issue, the materials from the white house really located in the storage room. classified documents were found in both a storage room and the former presidents office. moreover, the search cast areas out on the claim that the certification, the claim in the certification and now in the motion, that there had been a

diligent search for records responsive to the grand jury subpoenas. in the storage room or lawn, fbi agents found 76 documents bearing classification markings. all the classified documents seized in the august 8th search heaven segregated from the rest of the seized documents and are being separately maintained and stored in accordance with the appropriate procedures for handling and storing classified information. the fbi in a matter of hours recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as a diligent search that the former presidents counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform calls into serious question the representation is made in the certification and cast doubt on the extent of the cooperation in this matter is here is pointing out. that is serious, phil mudd. it is hidden, boy, i'm trying to take a breath here. because i misinterpreted this from the start, i guess, after 30 years of national security, i was still naive.

i assume that the president staff had scooped up maybe some relatively modest documents in terms of classification. but let me give you an interpretation of this, especially if you look at the photographs at the end of the document. a couple of things to say, and i will make this very simple. these are at the highest level of american national security classification, top secret sci, which is the classification you seen the photographed, typically re-first intercepted communications. it is hard to get higher in terms of classification in that. if these are revealed to the public or foreign adversaries, those foreign adversaries will determine how that stuff was intercepted, and it will close down those circuits. step two, the presidents claim of the classification. if you take that on its face, don, that means the president thinks it's appropriate to reveal to the planet have we

intercepted communications of foreign adversaries. so, to his lawyers and spokesman, do you believe then, because of the declassification climb, that it is appropriate to reveal these to china, russia, iran, et cetera, yes or no? finally, special master, can you tell meet on, how difficult it is to look at a legal document versus a document that has a cover page top secret? how difficult would it be for someone to say some documents might be personal, but we can quickly identify those documents which are national security documents? that would take us, you and me, you have zero experience in national security, i've got 35 years, that would take us about 20 minutes. the documents are clearly identified, they're sensitive, and the release of them would compromise national security. so you cannot classify them. i just do not know what to say, don. i cannot make it simpler than that. >> this is from pay seven, fill mudd, i'm going to read to you.

it says further, the fbi agents observed marking that the documents were subject to six -- department and dissemination controls used to restrict access to material in the interest of national security. >> so, i find this interesting because the president and his staff are saying something that undercut his case. you're talking about how the documents are classified, and what they clearly say. the president is going to say the fbi came and raided my house and took some of my personal documents, in addition to what are sensitive documents. and he thinks that is going to be a defense to say that my house was violated. what is he telling us? documents that are clearly identified as top secret were mixed in with personal documents. let me tell you my interpretation, it's not that the and fbi inappropriately raided the rice, it's that he didn't even bother to look at

this determine what is a dinner invitation, what was attorney-client privilege, and what was a top secret code word. he's almost saying to us i did not care about what was top secret. and i did not care to separate itself out and stored properly. this is not that complicated, don. >> yeah, listen, we are, this is the breaking news on cnn, the doj has responded to trump's team's request for a special master. our experts are standing by, elie honig, evan perez, julia cave, sara murray, everyone is her here. i want to bring in attorney elliot williams. elliot, you're going home of these documents, you're listening to coach even reading, the pages, looking at the photographs, what's say you, sir? >> oh, my god, there's so much to say, don. but just to pull out one passage on page ten of the document, it says the -- were quote, concealed and removed from the storage room, and efforts were likely taken to --

governance investigation. that is sort of like the line on the internet, tell me you were accused of obstruction of justice without tell me you are accused of obstruction of justice. that is laying out the standard for usc 50 19. >> what's the line, what's the line, what's the line on page ten? >> concealed and removed from the storage room, and efforts were likely taken to obstruct the governments investigation. >> got it. >> so, they're not talking here just about the sort of possession or even mishandling or destruction of document. it's trying to thwart the efforts of the justice department, or any other authorities, to carry out an investigation. and that is a serious -- it's not in the -- it's not a formal charge, but that is strong language, quite significant. >> attorney george conway, why would team trump want this information out there? why would they even ask for a special master, knowing what

the evidence is? >> it's insane. they asked for, basically they asked for the justice department punch them in the face. and that is what the justice department did in this brief. as elliott points out, they talk about obstruction. these documents were moved around, from room to room. and they focus, they actually show us the certification. i don't think we've seen it before, the certification for trump's lawyers that said, hey, there were no more documents, no more classified documents left here, in response to a subpoena. they gave a red wall of documents back, and it turned out, in a certified, then that's it, that's all the response of documents that we have. and it turned out there were no documents anywhere other than in that storage room. turns out there's documents in his office, there are documents all over the place. and tons of them, i mean, they have -- this factual recitation has him dead to rights. there is no question about it. and it explains a lot today

about what we were seeing donald trump, true thing out on his social media platform that's failing. he was basically just freaking out all day, and the reason is this evidence. this evidence shows, he is guilty as sin. he did this. >> evan -- >> he did these documents, he had the lawyers lie about it. it's incredible. >> evan, i understand you wanna point something out quickly. >> yeah, don, look, the photograph that we keep showing is, these are documents that are recovered from, according to this document today, it says the justice department says it came from the 45 office. this is the office of the former president inside mar-a-lago. and if you zoom in, close in there, on the heading that says secret sci, you will see the code that they used to describe the type of information in these documents, hcs's human intelligence. these are the most sensitive things for the cia, in

particular, which has, you know, human spies in very dangerous places, hostile countries, and these peoples lives would be in danger if someone could, you know, pinpoint who they were. again, this is the reason why these documents have these cover sheets, and they have these coats, because they tell everybody if you do not have the clearance to see this, you should not be looking at it. >> you should not be looking at. >> so, according to this document on page 13, it says even some of the agents who are doing the search, and again, these guys are cleared on some of the highest levels, even they had to get additional clearance but just to be able to review some of these documents. >> i want to get to former federal prosecutor elie honig here. elie, you're a prosecutor. where does this go now? >> don, we talked before about knowledge and intent. >> and now? it >> so, the importance and difficulty of establishing that. i see some important establishing of evidence and intent in this photo. the photo that we see in a screen, anyone who can read, it's not like a small print,

bold print up top, top secret, sci, top secret, top secret. so anyone who physically saw these documents, took them in, would understand their secret, top secret. also in detail from page 12, where doj rights that they basically say that we told him to keep all these documents occur in the storage room. but they say three classified documents that were not located in boxes, but rather were located in the desk of the 45. office >> 45 office, yeah. >> so, they got their somehow. who has access to those desk? i think is some really important indicators there that would go towards the establishment of knowledge and intent. in terms of what happens next, donald trump's team has to file tomorrow. the judge will have a hearing on thursday, maybe he will at the hearing. after that, but we will not soon whether or -- >> as you're looking for documents, i've read legal briefs before, right, as you've read this document, what do you think? >> it paints a potent picture of what happened during the search. it makes quite clear that there

were documents sort of scattered all over mar-a-lago that donald trump team lied. >> it's a punch in the face? >> the local way of putting it, all agree with that. it shows there's documents all over the place. there clearly marked top secret. doj tried everything before the search warrant. and essentially, they were misled. i mean, it's really compelling to me that the subpoena was served, and they got some documents back. and they do the search warrant, and they immediately find double the amount. >> well, thank you everyone. i appreciate. it our breaking news coverage is gonna continue on. i am don lemon. john vause up next. this is cnn breaking news. >> hello, i'm john vause, at the cnn center in atlanta, with more now on the breaking news on the fbi search of donald trump's mar-a-lago resort. u.s. justice department has just filed its response, opposing trump's request for a special master to review all materials taken from his home. th