The Department of Justice filed a brief on Monday night, pushing back on former President Donald Trump's request to reestablish a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF), ostensibly at his Mar-a-Lago resort, The Hill reported.
The brief comes in the wake of Trump's legal team last week asking for a secure facility where the former president could discuss the contents of the 32 classified documents he's accused of mishandling.
Trump would be "the only defendant ever" to have the benefit of reviewing classified documents at a home, the DOJ said in its brief.
"Creating a secure location in Trump's residence — which is also a social club — so he can discuss classified information would be an unnecessary and unjustified accommodation that deviates from the normal course of cases involving classified discovery," the DOJ wrote, per The Hill.
While Trump's team didn't specifically name Mar-a-Lago, they asked for "the same secure area that existed during President Trump's term."
"In making this request for the creation of a secure location for his personal use, Trump continues to seek special treatment that no other criminal defendant would receive. In essence, he is asking to be the only defendant ever in a case involving classified information (at least to the Government's knowledge) who would be able to discuss classified information in a private residence," the DOJ wrote.
The brief also pushed back on the Trump team's request to have co-defendant Walt Nauta have full access to the classified docs. Nauta is facing obstruction charges in helping Trump conceal the documents, not for mishandling them in the first place.
"The classified discovery in this case goes well beyond the charged documents and includes documents so sensitive that Nauta would not have been permitted to view them even when he possessed a security clearance," DOJ writes, per The Hill.
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