Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has urged US district judge Aileen Cannon, overseeing Donald Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, to reject the Republican presidential candidate’s contention that he had any claim to personal ownership over the boxes of top secret files reclaimed by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.

       The former president refused to return the documents to the National Archives when requested, leading Mr Smith to issue a federal indictment, with the special counsel now calling on Judge Cannon to ignore Mr Trump’s claim that he designated the information “personal” while president as “pure fiction”.

       Elsewhere, Mr Trump is suing his fellow co-founders of the parent company behind Truth Social, former Apprentice contestants Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, to try to wrestle ownership of the company from them.

       The candidate also returned to the campaign trail in Michigan and Wisconsin on Tuesday, where he revived his “bloodbath” rhetoric on illegal immigrants and attacked President Joe Biden on everything from the border to golf.

       Mr Trump also warned that the country would “cease to exist” if he lost November’s election, proclaimed a “Christian Visibility Day” and compared himself to notorious gangster Al Capone.