Trump attorney James Trusty sounds off on DOJ's fight against special master
Former Maryland federal prosecutor James Trusty joins 'Life, Liberty & Levin' to discuss the latest on Trump's raid case.
Trump attorney Jim Trusty, who previously served in the DOJ and as a federal prosecutor in Maryland, questioned his former employer's steadfast opposition to a special master sorting through documents seized during the Mar-a-Lago raid.
Trusty recounted the court session in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he asked what the harm would be to the Justice Department if someone essentially checked their work.
"What we have in this situation is such a historical first, and I mean that in a very negative way — to have this search warrant based on failed, narrow negotiations, I suppose, that allowed the government to basically ransack the president's residence," he said.
"You'd think that in this era of the attorney general constantly talking about rule of law and transparency, that he would be the first one to say, ‘Sure, another set of eyes is perfectly fine.'"
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Ex-CIA director and an MSNBC contributor suggest the execution of Former President Donald Trump after Washington Post claim that the FBI raid sought out "nuclear" documents. (James Devaney/GC Images)
Trusty nodded to "Life, Liberty & Levin" host Mark Levin's past post as chief of staff to Attorney General Ed Meese to say he was always proud to have worked at DOJ and questioned why the custom of "small justice" and trying to "do the right thing" for the American people seems to be eroding.
"What is it that DOJ is so worried about by having an independent, established, well, esteemed person, just give a second look and give some classifications or some categories to what they seized?" he added.
"They fought [the special master imposition] tooth-and-nail. And frankly, when the judge asked them that very same question, they didn't have much of an answer. It was kind of like this overarching theme of, 'Leave us alone, we know what we're doing. We don't need anybody to second guess us.'"
Jim Trusty, a former federal prosecutor, is a partner at Ifrah Law. (Ifrah Law)
That, he said, is a marked change in how the Justice Department presents itself since the time he and Levin worked there.
"It's extraordinary," Trusty added.
"I would have been so much more respectful of the department and of this attorney general if they turned around and said, 'You know what, good idea to have a special master. We have nothing to hide, let's get at it.' -But that's not the approach. It's a constant fight."
Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing to discuss the fiscal year 2023 budget of the Department of Justice at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, April 26, 2022. (Greg Nash/Pool Photo via AP) (Greg Nash/Pool Photo via AP)
After Judge Bruce Reinhart signed off on the Mar-a-Lago raid, Trump petitioned the court for a special master to be installed — the litigation for which fell to another South Florida jurist, Judge Aileen Cannon.
"We still need judicial intervention. We need a judge to monitor our access to these documents. We haven't had a single phone call from the filter team telling us anything. This is the first knowledge we had about their findings on attorney-client privilege," Trusty said in a prior Fox News interview.
He added the Biden Justice Department decided to "ignore the concept of executive privilege" in the case, as well as the Presidential Records Act.