The Justice Department believes that the missing classified and secret documents, which were not found during the search of Donald Trump’s home in South Florida, “were likely concealed and removed” from the property as part of an effort to obstruct the federal investigation into the whereabouts of the confidential documents.
In that search, the FBI also seized boxes and files containing more than 100 documents with varying degrees of sensitivity, and found classified documents hidden in Trump’s own office, according to a document filed Tuesday night with the most detailed timeline to date. the date about months of tense interactions between Justice Department officials and Trump representatives over the uncovering of government secrets.
The filing offers another indication of the sheer volume of classified documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago. It shows how investigators conducting the criminal investigation have focused not only on the issue of why they were improperly stored there, but also on whether the Trump team intentionally misled them about the illegal presence of the highly sensitive documents.
The timeline established by the Department of Justice makes it clear that the search for Mar-a-Lago came only after several efforts to recover it had failed, and that it was due to the suspicion that additional documents remained inside the property, despite of assurances to the contrary from Trump and his lawyers.
The release of these details of the investigation includes a photo of some of the seized documents with colored covers indicating their level of classification, an attempt to refute suggestions that authorities are manipulating the contents.
The photo shows the covers of several bound classified documents, some marked “TOP SECRET//SCI” with bright yellow borders and one marked “SECRET//SCI” with a rust-colored or red border. Next to them is a cardboard box filled with gold-framed photographs, including a magazine cover. Time.
Although it contains significant new details about the investigation, the Justice Department’s filing does not resolve a central question that has sparked public fascination: why Trump kept the documents after leaving the White House and why he and his team resisted. to repeated efforts to return them. Indeed, it suggests officials may not have received a response.
During a visit to Mar-a-Lago on June 3 by FBI and Justice Department officials, the document states: “The former president’s attorney offered no explanation as to why boxes of government records, including 38 documents with classification marks, they remained in the facilities almost five months after the return of 15 boxes and almost a year and a half after the end of the Administration”.
That visit, which came weeks after the Justice Department issued a subpoena for records, receives substantial attention in the document and appears to be a key investigative focus.
Although Trump insisted again on Wednesday that he had declassified the Mar-a-Lago documents, his attorneys did not suggest that during the visit and instead “handled them in a way that suggested the attorney believed the documents were classified.” said the Justice Department.
Investigators were allowed to visit the storage room, but not to open or look inside any of the boxes, “providing no opportunity for the government to confirm that no documents with classification marks remained,” the Justice Department says.
During that visit, the document states, Trump’s lawyers told investigators that all the records that had come from the White House were stored in one place, a room at Mar-a-Lago, and that “there were no other records.” stored in any other private place”.
