'Ain't happening': Legal experts call Trump's latest court fight doomed 'publicity stunt'

Former President Donald Trump's new plan to sue the Justice Department over its raid of Mar-a-Lago is ridiculous and doomed to failure, legal experts argued Monday.

The former president said he is filing a $100 million lawsuit against the DOJ over the search warrant executed at his estate in 2022 as part of the classified documents investigation, which led to federal charges filed against him in South Florida. He argues that the search was politically motivated and an attack on his rights.

But former federal prosecutors believe this is just a stunt for attention, with no chance of actually succeeding.

"MEDIA- Let’s not take the bait," wrote former DOJ lawyer Andrew Weissmann on X. "This is nothing but a publicity stunt. Trump wd [sic] be subject to civil discovery including a deposition. That ain’t happening. Not to mention that the civil suit appears beyond frivolous and cd [sic] subject him to sanctions as have been awarded in other Trump civil suits."

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance agreed with this assessment. "If I were at DOJ I would welcome this. A civil suit? Discovery. Trump's deposition. And a focus on why the criminal case was legitimate & Trump's criminality. Perhaps Trump has forgotten how badly he lost when his 1st civil suit attempt at derailing this prosecution made it to the 11th Circuit, but I'm sure DOJ hasn't."

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This comes after District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was herself appointed to the bench by Trump, dismissed the entire classified documents case based on a legal theory that the Justice Department has no authority to appoint a special counsel who was not Senate-confirmed.

This ruling, which many experts have said flies in the face of decades of legal understanding of how the special counsel statute works, is currently being appealed by Smith.