An attorney for President Donald Trump‘s transition team said that special counsel Robert Mueller inappropriately obtained emails from the 2016 presidential transition team.
Kory Langhofer, the counsel to the Trump for America transition team, wrote in a letter to Congress that Mueller acquired tens of thousands of emails from the General Services Administration through actions Langhofer alleges were “unlawful” according to a Fox News report.
BREAKING NEWS: Trump transition team sends letter to lawmakers; claims Mueller team inappropriately obtained private documents. pic.twitter.com/fWAqEdnz09
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 16, 2017
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Langhofer, claiming a violation of the Fourth Amendment, argued that the GSA handed over the emails, some laptops, cell phones and at least one iPad without authorization and that Mueller’s team made “extensive use of the materials it obtained from the GSA, including materials that are susceptible to privilege claims.” The legal team said that the GSA “did not own or control the records in question” and Mueller obtaining them was an unreasonable search and seizure which could make any information gained through its use inadmissible in any legal proceedings that may happen or could invalidate legal actions already taken
The GSA, an agency of the United States government, provided the transition team with office space and hosted its email servers which is likely how the government group gained access to the emails before handing them over to the special counsel.
Langhofer asked in the letter to the Senate Homeland Security and House Oversight Committees that they “act immediately to protect future presidential transitions from having their private records misappropriated by government agencies, particularly in the context of sensitive investigations intersecting with political motives.”
Neither of the committees, the GSA nor Mueller’s special counsel office have provided comment as of the publication of this article.
