According to the New York Times, those seized on Trump’s 36-page search list at his home in Mar-a-Lago include 3 specially classified documents on the desks in the former US President’s office, 13 boxes in the residence, some classified as top secret, or 100. It was stated that more than 1,000 documents were found.
PHOTO SHARE WITH THE PRESS
That means the former Trump’s lawyers have twice as many secret documents handed in as they claim to have returned all materials requested by the government.
The Justice Department also added a photo of documents seized from former President Donald J. Trump’s Florida home to the court file, which was also shared with the press.
“EFFICIENT TO PREVENT THE INVESTIGATION”
The investigation into Trump’s seizure of government documents began as a relatively simple attempt by National Archives officials to retrieve the documents in 2021.
Investigators have obtained evidence that ‘government records were possibly concealed and removed’ from the warehouse in Mar-a-Lago after the Justice Department sent a subpoena to Mr Trump’s office for documents that remained confidential. According to the government file, this led prosecutors to conclude that “efforts were made to impede the investigation”.
The efforts of the Ministry of Justice began in May. He reviewed 15 boxes of documents the National Archives had previously received from Mar-a-Lago, and for months asked Trump’s representatives to return the missing records. The Bureau found 184 classified documents in the first phase. On May 11, department attorneys received a subpoena to retrieve all material marked as classified, not delivered by the former president. On June 3, the FBI seized 38 additional documents with classified markings, including 17 top secret labels.
SEARCH WAS DONE ON AUGUST 8
But according to the statement, one of Trump’s lawyers present during this visit explicitly forbade government personnel to open or look inside the boxes left in the warehouse, giving the government no opportunity to verify that no documents with classification markings remained. Trump’s team also revealed to the department’s national security division as Christina Bobb as Trump’s official “responsible” for the files. Bobb wrote in his deposition that a “rigorous” search was conducted and all documents that responded to the subpoena were returned. But law enforcement soon developed evidence that the statement was not true.
The FBI’s Department of Justice filing uncovered multiple sources of evidence showing that the response to the May 11 subpoena was incomplete and that the classified documents remained in the building despite affidavit given to the government on June 3. The Justice Department received at least one more subpoena for security camera footage from inside Mar-a-Lago, and the raid took place on 8 August.
Trump, for his part, dismissed concerns about the performance of his legal team and said he would ultimately prevail. The investigation shows that more documents will come out and this will be against Trump.
* The image of the news is provided by the Associated Press.