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The Justice Department said Tuesday that classified documents “may have been hidden and removed from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate” in an effort to thwart a federal investigation into the discovery of government records.
The FBI also seized 33 boxes containing more than 100 classified records during its Aug. 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago and found Confidential documents hidden in Trump’s officeaccording to a document that lays out the most detailed chronology to date of months of tense interactions between Justice Department officials and Trump representatives over the discovery of government secrets.
The document once again shows the sheer volume of classified records retrieved from Mar-a-Lago. It shows how investigators conducting criminal investigations focus not only on why records were improperly stored there, but also on the question of whether the Trump team knowingly misled them about the continued and illegal existence of top-secret documents.
The timetable set by the Department of Justice makes it clear that, Extraordinary Mar-a-Lago Search It only emerged after other efforts to retrieve the records had failed, and it was due to law enforcement suspicions that other documents remained on the property despite assurances from Trump representatives that a “diligent search” had accounted for all of the material.
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It also included images of some of the seized documents, with clear classification markings, perhaps to counter claims that those who packaged or handled the documents had no grasp of their sensitive nature.
The photo shows the covers of some paperclip-bound classified documents—some marked “TOP SECRET //SCI” with a bright yellow border, one marked “SECRET //SCI” with a rust-colored border—and White-painted pages spread out on the Mar-a-Lago carpet. Next to them was a cardboard box filled with gold-framed photos, including the cover of Time magazine.
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The Justice Department documents don’t answer the core questions that fueled the public’s interest in the investigation — why Trump kept the documents after he left the White House and why he and his team refused to make repeated efforts to return them.
In fact, during a June 3 visit by FBI and Justice Department officials to Mar-a-Lago, “advisers to the former president did not explain why the government records box, including 38 classified-marked documents, was nearly left on the property. Premises. Five months after the production of fifteen boxes, and nearly a year and a half after the end of the government,” according to the document.
The visit to Mar-a-Lago received significant scrutiny in the filing and was a key focus of the investigation, weeks after the Justice Department issued its subpoena.
Although Trump has said he has declassified all of the Mar-a-Lago documents, his lawyers did not suggest doing so during the visit, but instead “handled the documents in a way that suggested the lawyers believed they were classified.”
When FBI agents traveled to Mar-a-Lago in June to receive additional materials, they were given “a Redweld envelope, double-wrapped with tape, with documents inside.”
According to the FBI, the envelope contained 38 unique documents with classification markings, including five marked classified, 16 classified classified and 17 classified as top secret.
During that visit, Trump’s lawyers told investigators that all records from the White House were stored in one place — the storage room at Mar-a-Lago — and “no other records were stored in any private,” the documents said.
After that, though, the Justice Department subpoenaed footage from the property, “finding evidence that government records may have been hidden and removed from storage and that efforts to obstruct a government investigation may have been undertaken.” The document did not specify a possible relocation of these Box of individuals.
During the August search, agents found classified documents in both the storage room and the former president’s office — including three that were found not in boxes but on desks.
“The FBI recovered in a few hours twice as many classified-marked documents as the ‘diligent search’ that the former president’s lawyers and other representatives had weeks to conduct, the June 3 certification and cooperation on the matter” degree of doubt,” the document said.
“In some cases, even FBI counterintelligence officers and Justice Department attorneys conducting the review require additional clearance to be allowed to review certain documents,” it said.
The investigation began with a referral from the National Archives and Records Administration, which recovered 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago in January and found that they contained 184 documents marked as classified, including top-secret information.
The filing Tuesday night was aimed at opposing Trump’s legal team’s request for a special director to review documents seized during this month’s raids and set aside those protected by legal privilege. U.S. District Judge Erin Cannon will hear arguments on the matter on Thursday.
Cannon said Saturday that appointing such a person was her “preliminary intent,” but also gave the Justice Department a chance to respond.
On Monday, the department said it had completed a review of potentially privileged documents and identified “a limited set of materials that may contain attorney-client privilege information.” It said on Tuesday that the request was therefore “unnecessary”.
In another development, the Trump legal team has grown with the addition of another lawyer. Former Florida Attorney General Chris Keith has joined a team of lawyers representing Trump who were not authorized to discuss the move by name, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. Kise did not respond to messages seeking comment.
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