The bipartisan panel investigating the matter has expanded its investigation into the destruction and disposal of White House documents, demanding more information about classified material found on his Florida property and reports that aides destroyed documents during his time in office. , noted the newspaper.
In a letter to the national archivist, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York and chair of the Oversight Committee, said the panel is seeking a detailed description of the contents of 15 crates recovered from Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s residential compound in Palm Beach.
The request includes the classification level of the materials, and all records that he “had broken, destroyed, mutilated or attempted to break, destroy or mutilate,” the letter said.
The congresswoman indicated that the panel wanted documents “related to White House employees or contractors who found paper in a toilet in the White House, including the White House residence.”
“The American people deserve to know the extent of what former President Trump did to hide and destroy federal records and make sure these abuses don’t happen again,” Maloney said in a statement quoted by the Times.
The National Archives confirmed in a letter to the representative last week that they found classified information among the material Trump took home with him in Florida when he left office last year, and that they had consulted with the Justice Department on the matter.
According to the publication, the files did not describe the classified material it found beyond saying it was “classified national security information.”
Separately, reports said Attorney General Merrick Garland refused to say this week whether the Justice Department has opened an investigation into the former Republican president’s handling of classified information.
“As the archivist said in a letter that was sent to Congress, the National Archives has made the Department of Justice aware of this and has contacted them,” Garland told reporters. “And we’ll do what we always do in these circumstances: look at the facts and the law and take it from there,” he said.
In recent weeks, a series of revelations have raised new questions about the Trump administration’s failure to comply with federal record-keeping laws and its handling of classified information when the former president left office.
The former president declared a week ago that “fake news is making it appear that I, as president of the United States, was working in a file room,” in an apparent attempt to downplay the accusations against him.
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