The United States Department of Justice's Thursday response to Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon's Monday order assigning a special master to determine whether the trove of classified documents that were seized during the Federal Bureau of Investigation's search warrant execution at former President Donald Trump's unsecured Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8th are covered by executive privilege has provoked a bellicose reaction from the embattled ex-commander in chief.
The Justice Department wrote in its motion to Cannon, a Trump appointee, that declassification power "falls upon the incumbent President, not on any former President, because it is the incumbent President who bears the responsibility to protect and defend the national security of the United States."
The filing also states that "Trump himself declined to assert any claim of executive privilege over the classified records at the point when it would have been appropriate to do so."
READ MORE: 'The public would suffer irreparable harm': Justice Department responds to special master order
After news of the development broke, Trump rehashed his debunked conspiracy theory that his 2020 presidential campaign was "spied on" in a pair of hyperbolic posts on his fake Twitter app Truth Social:
So now the FBI & Biden Department of 'Justice' leakers are going to spend Millions of Dollars, & vast amounts of Time & Energy, to appeal the Order on the 'Raid of Mar-a-Lago Document Hoax,' by a brilliant and courageous Judge whose words of wisdom rang true throughout our Nation, instead of fighting the record setting corruption and crime that is taking place right before their very eyes. They SPIED on my Campaign, lied to FISA COURT, told Facebook 'quiet,' preside over worst CRIME WAVE ever!!
Trump then swiped at New York City's Central Park, which borders the 58-story Trump Tower on 5th Avenue:
…..They leak, lie, plant fake evidence, allow the spying on my campaign, deceive the FISA Court, RAID and Break-Into my home, lose documents, and then they ask me, as the 45th President of the United States, to trust them. Look at the I.G. Reports on Comey, McCabe, and others. Things are safer in the middle of Central Park!
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