Trump urges special master to rule Mar-a-Lago records are his personal property

Former President Donald Trump's lawyers have argued in a recent court filing that the documents the FBI recovered from his Mar-a-Lago estate became his personal records when he took them from the White House.

By virtue of Trump's selection of the presidential records for storage on his private estate, then-President Trump re-designated them as personal records, his legal team asserted after Special Master Raymond Dearie requested that both he and the DOJ present their own cases for classifying the documents, according to The Hill.

"President Trump was still serving his term in office when the documents at issue were packed, transported, and delivered to his residence in Palm Beach, Florida," the Trump team wrote. "Thus, when he made a designation decision, he was President of the United States; his decision to retain certain records as personal is entitled to deference, and the records in question are thus presumptively personal."

Trump is seeking to have select documents withheld from the Department of Justice based on his interpretation of the Presidential Records Act, under which his word alone would be the determinate of a records' status.

"In other words, it is the President's designation—not the appearance or content of a given document—that is determinative. … President Trump need not put forth documentary evidence of his designation decisions, because his conduct unequivocally confirmed that he was treating the materials in question as personal records, rather than Presidential records," his lawyers argued, per the outlet.

The DOJ has in turn argued that interpreting the Presidential Records Act in Trump's manner would "nullify the statutes [sic] entire purpose," The Hill reported.

Determining the legal status of the seized documents will be a crucial prerequisite for moving forward with any case against the former president for his handling of any classified material.