At least one lawyer for former President Donald Trump signed a written statement in June, marking all documents as classified and returning them to the government in boxes in a storage area at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and club, four people who witnessed it said. document
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The written statement was made after Jay I. Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the Justice Department’s National Security Division, visited Mar-a-Lago on June 3.
The existence of this previously unreported signing statement is a possible indication that Mr Trump or his team have not been fully forthcoming with federal investigators about the documents.
It could also help explain why the department cited a potential violation of the criminal statute of obstruction as a reason to request the warrant used to search the former president’s home in broad daylight on Monday. That sent political shock waves.
Mr. It also helps further explain the sequence of events that prompted the Justice Department to conduct the search after months of trying to resolve the case through negotiations with Trump and his team.
Released on Friday, Mr. A list of documents seized from Trump’s home shows FBI agents seized 11 sets of documents, some of which were marked “Classified/TS/SCI,” short for “Top Compartmentalized Secret/Sensitive Information.”
Such classified information should only be viewed in secure government facilities.
Photo by Steve Helber, Associated Press Archives
Mar-a-Lago owned by former President Donald Trump
Not just a storage area with boxes of familiar Justice Department documents, Mr. Trump’s office and residence were also covered in the search. A search warrant and inventory released Friday did not specify where the documents identified as classified at the Mar-a-Lago complex were found.
Trump said on Friday that he released all the documents he had while in office. No document was provided to confirm this.
A “Standing Order”
During an appearance on Fox News Friday night, right-wing author John Solomon, whom Trump appointed as one of his representatives to speak with the National Archives, read a statement from the former president’s office saying Trump had a “standing order.” Documents taken from the Oval Office and brought to the White House residence “were deemed classified when he removed them.”
Taylor Budovich, a spokesman for the former president, said Saturday, “Like all previous Democratic-fictional witch hunts, the waters of this unprecedented and unnecessary attack will be carried by suggestive leaks, anonymous sources and a media ready to run with hard facts. . . .
The search warrant indicates that FBI agents are conducting a search for evidence of violations of the Judicial Obligation Act as well as the Espionage Act and the Act that prohibits the unlawful taking or destruction of government records or documents.
No one has been charged in the case, and a search warrant doesn’t mean there won’t be someone.
When Mr. Officials at the National Archives discovered last year that Trump carried a large number of documents and other government materials with him. This matter has been referred to the Archives under the Presidential Archives Act.
Back to events
Trump returned 15 boxes of documents in January this year. When archivists reviewed the material, they found several pages of documents marked as classified and referred the matter to the Justice Department, which opened an investigation and convened a grand jury.
In the spring, the department issued a subpoena to Mr. Trump that obtained additional documents he said he had. Advisers have repeatedly described the former president as wanting to keep some documents, but have asked for the rest to be returned.
In an attempt to settle the dispute, Mr. Bratt and other officials traveled to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., in early June and met briefly with Mr. Trump while there. Two of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Evan Corcoran and Christina Babb, spoke with Mr. Bratt and a handful of investigators he traveled with, the people briefed on the meeting said.
Mr. Corcoran and Mr.me Bob showed Mr. Bratt and his team boxes containing equipment that Mr. Trump had taken from the White House and placed in a storage area, the people said.
According to two people briefed on the visit, Mr. Bratt and his team left with additional documents marked classified and received a written statement from Mr. Trump’s lawyer at the time that all the documents were marked classified in boxes. handed over.
Shortly after the meeting, Mr. Bratt emailed Corcoran asking for a more secure lock on the room, according to those briefed.
The Justice Department also obtained surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago, including views from outside the storage room. The footage raised concerns among investigators about the handling of the material, according to a person familiar with the situation. Not sure when these pictures are from.
Over the past several months, investigators have been in contact with a half-dozen current aides to Mr. Trump who have knowledge of how the documents are being handled, the two people said. According to a person familiar with the investigation’s progress, at least one witness has provided information to investigators that they want to press Trump for the documents.
This article was originally published The New York Times.
