'STOP the review': Trump issues statement on motion to appoint 'special master'

Former President Donald Trump on Monday blasted the FBI's raid on his home as political persecution in a statement he issued explaining his motion to appoint a special master to review documents the FBI took.

The former president on Monday announced that he was seeking the appointment of a "special master" to review the documents the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago.

"We are demanding the appointment of a SPECIAL MASTER to oversee the handling of the materials taken in the raid," he said in his Monday statement. "We are now demanding that the Department of “Justice” be instructed to immediately STOP the review of documents illegally seized from my home. ALL documents have been previously declassified," he continued.

Trump has claimed that he imposed a standing order to declassify documents he took with him to his residence after normal working hours and has pointed to presidential discretion as a basis for claiming legitimate possession of the documents.

"The wrongful, overbroad warrant was signed by a Magistrate Judge who recused himself just two months ago, from a MAJOR civil suit that I filed, because of his bias and animus toward me," Trump wrote. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who issued the warrant, previously recused himself in a civil case Trump brought against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others regarding the Russia collusion scandal.

"This Mar-a-Lago Break-In, Search, and Seizure was illegal and unconstitutional, and we are taking all actions necessary to get the documents back, which we would have given to them without the necessity of the despicable raid of my home, so that I can give them to the National Archives until they are required for the future Donald J. Trump Presidential Library and Museum," the former President continued.

Following the raid, it was revealed that a grand jury had previously served Trump with a subpoena seeking classified documents and that he had cooperated extensively with federal law enforcement seeking to enforce the order.

"They demanded that the security cameras be turned off, a request we rightfully denied," he continued. "They prevented my attorneys from observing what was being taken in the raid, saying 'absolutely not.' They took documents covered by attorney-client and executive privilege, which is not allowed. They took my passports. They even brought a “safe cracker” and successfully broke into my personal safe, which revealed…nothing!"

Trump previously claimed that he installed the lock on his safe at the request of FBI agents who visited his home to enforce the subpoena two months prior to the raid.