The Justice Department claims to have found an inside witness in the process of investigating former President Trump’s handling of classified documents.
Citing people familiar with the matter, The New York Times reported that the unidentified person cooperating confidentially with authorities has worked for Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
According to the article, the extent of the witness’s cooperation is still unclear, but he allegedly gave investigators a picture of the storage room where some materials were kept.
The investigation, led by special counsel Jack Smith, shows signs of intensifying. The new internal witness, says the Timesappears as part of a broader effort to find out whether Trump personally ordered boxes of confidential material removed from the storage room.
Investigators are tracking whether Trump failed or refused to comply with government requests to return certain records after the end of his presidency, as required by the Presidential Records Act.
After the Department subpoenaed Trump for the documents believed to still be in his possession, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago and recovered classified documents.
The New York newspaper also reported that “almost everyone” who works at Mar-a-Lago has been subpoenaed in the investigation.
The investigation into Trump’s handling of documents is one of two investigations into the former president led by Smith.
The second focuses on efforts by Trump and his allies to interfere in the transfer of power after losing his 2020 re-election bid.