First Thing: Trump appears to concede he illegally retained official documents

Ex-president’s lawyers indicate he unlawfully kept government papers after losing election. Plus, a raw veg row

Good day ❤️.

Donald Trump’s lawyers have indicated that he unlawfully retained official government documents after losing the presidential election and not handing the papers over to national archivists.

In a motion submitted earlier this week, the former president’s legal team argued that some of the documents seized by the FBI in a search of Trump’s Florida resort could be subject to executive privilege. They are seeking the appointment of a so-called special master to determine what materials the justice officials can review.

“It’s not clear that executive privilege would even be relevant to the particular crime he’s being investigated for and yet in this filing, he basically admits that he is in possession of them, which is what the government is trying to establish,” said Asha Rangappa, a former FBI agent and former associate dean at Yale law school.

Potential obstruction. The justice department has been embroiled for months in a battle to recover records from Trump. He previously returned 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives, but the FBI has retrieved additional classified materials from his possession...

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Government to take greater control of Liverpool city council

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