The president is set to return to his campaign theme of democracy in peril as his party fights to retain its hold on Congress in the midterm elections.
The former president, who used the slow pace of litigation to run out the clock on congressional oversight, is seeking intervention that could lead to appeals and slow the documents inquiry.
What had started as an effort to retrieve national security documents has now been transformed into one of the most challenging and complicated criminal investigations in recent memory.
The government set aside materials flagged for possible attorney-client issues, according to a filing related to former President Donald J. Trump’s request for an independent arbiter to review papers taken from his residence.
The lawyers representing the former president in the investigation into his handling of classified documents have tried out an array of defenses as they seek to hold off the Justice Department.
Don Bolduc, a retired Army general, has played to the Republican base and is leading in polls to take on Senator Maggie Hassan, who is viewed as vulnerable in November.
The director of national intelligence told lawmakers that her office would lead a review concerning the sensitive documents retrieved from former President Donald J. Trump’s Florida residence.
The judge, an appointee of President Donald J. Trump, indicated she was prepared to grant Mr. Trump’s request for an arbiter, or special master, to review the documents seized by the F.B.I.
At the White House and aboard Air Force One, advocates of debt cancellation made a sustained push to win over the president, who feared the plan would be seen as a giveaway to the privileged.