Donald Trump’s legal team baulks at judge’s document declassification questions

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Donald Trump’s legal team has told a newly appointed independent arbiter that it does not want to answer his questions about the declassification status of documents seized last month from the former president’s Florida home, saying the issue could be part of the former president’s defence if he is indicted.

Lawyers for Mr Trump and for the Justice Department are to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday before a veteran judge named last week as special master to review about 11,000 documents — including 100 marked as classified — taken during the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8.