DeSantis Transition Lawyer Joins Trump Legal Team for Mar-a-Lago Raid Case
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Donald Trump has tapped former Florida solicitor general Chris Kise to work on his legal team as the Department of Justice carries out a criminal investigation into the former president for potential removal or destruction of records, obstruction of an investigation, and violating the Espionage Act, according to a new report.
Kise, who previously worked on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s transition team and has won four cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, first began negotiations with the former president shortly after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago on August 8, NBC News reported. He will leave the law firm where he currently works to join team Trump.
The new hire comes after “numerous” other criminal defense attorneys declined to represent Trump because of the massive size of the job and his reputation as a legal client, according to the report.
Kise’s first appearance as an attorney for Trump could come on Thursday, when a West Palm Beach federal court is set to hear Trump’s request for a special master to conduct an independent review of some documents that were seized in the Mar-a-Lago search. The DOJ has opposed the request, saying such a move could cause potential injury to national security interests.
A new DOJ filing in the special master fight revealed Tuesday that the department pursued a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago because investigators believed that former president Trump and his associated relocated and hid highly classified records, though they claimed they returned the information to the government.
A list of seized property included roughly 20 boxes of items, binders of photos, a handwritten note, the executive grant of clemency for Roger Stone, as well as information about French president Emmanuel Macron.
Trump claimed in the wake of the search that he had been “cooperating fully” to return missing records for months.
