Comment on this storyComment
Two of Donald Trump’s associates were moving boxes of papers the day before FBI agents and a prosecutor, in response to a subpoena, visited the former president’s Florida home to pick up classified documents — a time that investigators now consider suspicious and a lead look for a possible handicap to people who are familiar with the matter.
Trump and his associates also allegedly conducted a “dress rehearsal” for sending sensitive papers even before his office received the subpoena in May 2022, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid a sensitive ongoing to describe the investigation.
Prosecutors have also gathered evidence that Trump at times kept classified documents in his office in a visible location and sometimes shared them with others, these people said.
Overall, the new details of the classified documents investigation suggest that the cases of possible disability identified by the FBI and Justice Department are broader and more specific than previously reported. It also expands the timeline of possible disability episodes that investigators are investigating — a time period ranging from the events at Mar-a-Lago before the subpoena to this time period after the FBI raid there on August 8th.
That timeline could prove crucial as prosecutors want to find out whether Trump kept hundreds of classified documents after he left the White House, which is a crucial factor in deciding whether to face charges of obstruction of justice or misappropriation of national secrets security should be raised. The Washington Post previously reported that the boxes were removed from the storage area after Trump’s office received a subpoena. However, the exact timing of this activity is an important element of the investigation, people familiar with the matter said.
Grand jury activity in the case has slowed in recent weeks, and Trump’s attorneys have taken action – including laying out his possible defense to members of Congress and requesting a meeting with the attorney general – That suggests they expect a fee decision to be near. The grand jury involved in the investigation has apparently not met since May 5, after months of frantic activity at the federal courthouse in Washington. It’s the panel’s longest hiatus since December, shortly after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith special counsel to lead the investigation, and it coincided with the year-end holiday.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in any case. “This is nothing more than a targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump designed to interfere in an election and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House,” Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, wrote in an explanation. “Just like all other false hoaxes against President Trump, this corrupt attempt will fail.”
Cheung accused prosecutors of “disregard for decency or important norms of the legal system,” and he claimed that investigators “harassed everyone who worked.” [for]has worked [for]or support Donald Trump.”
“During the course of negotiations for the return of documents, President Trump told the senior Justice Department official, ‘Anything you need from us, just let us know,'” he continued. “The fact that the DOJ rejected this offer of cooperation and conducted a raid on Mar-a-Lago proves that the Biden regime weaponized the DOJ and the FBI.”
A spokesman for Smith declined to comment. Justice Department officials previously said they only conducted the search after months of unsuccessful efforts to recover all classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Of particular concern to investigators in the classified documents case, according to people familiar with the investigation, is evidence that boxes of documents were moved to a storage area on June 2, just before Justice Department senior attorney Jay Bratt arrived in Mar-a arrived -Lago with agents. The visit of police officers on June 3rd was to gather material in response to May 2022 Grand jury subpoena demanding return of all documents with secret markings.
John Irving, an attorney representing one of the two employees who moved the boxes, said the worker didn’t know what was inside and was just trying to help Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, who was carrying several boxes with a dolly or boxes moved by a sack truck.
“He was seen on Mar-a-Lago security video helping Walt Nauta move boxes to a storage area on June 2, 2022. My customer saw Mr. Nauta moving the boxes and volunteered to help,” Irving said. The next day, he added, the employee helped Nauta pack an SUV “when former President Trump left for Bedminster for the summer.”
The lawyer said his client, a longtime Mar-a-Lago employee whose name he declined to identify, was cooperating with the government and had “no reason to believe helping move boxes mattered at all.” . Other people familiar with the investigation confirmed the employee’s role and said he was questioned on multiple occasions by authorities.
Irving is representing multiple witnesses in the investigation and his law firm is paid by Trump’s Save America PAC, disclosure reports show. A lawyer for Nauta, Stanley Brand, declined to comment.
Investigators have been trying to gather evidence that suggests Trump or people close to him deliberately withheld confidential documents from the government.
On the evening of June 2, the same day the two employees transported the boxes, an attorney for Trump contacted the Justice Department and said officials were welcome to visit Mar-a-Lago and review classified documents related to the collect summons. Bratt and the FBI agents arrived the next day.
Trump’s attorneys presented officers with a sealed envelope containing 38 classified documents and a signed certificate stating that a “careful search” had been conducted for the documents requested in the subpoena and that all relevant documents had been turned over.
As part of that visit, Bratt and the agents were invited to tour the storage room where boxes of documents from his presidency were kept, according to Trump’s advisers. Court filings filed by the Justice Department said Trump’s attorneys told visitors they could not open any of the boxes in the storage room or see the contents.
Two months later, when FBI agents received a court order to search Mar-a-Lago, they found more than 100 others Classified documents, some in Trump’s office and some in the storage area.
In a court filing explaining the search filed in August, prosecutors said they presented evidence that “obstructive behavior” took place in connection with responding to the subpoena, including that documents were “probably hidden and leaked.” removed from the storage room”.
Prosecutors have also gathered evidence that even before Trump’s office received the subpoena in May, Trump had a “dress rehearsal” for relocating government documents, which some officials called he didn’t want to release, people familiar with the investigation said.
The term “dress rehearsal” was Some of the people said it was used in a sealed court report issued earlier this year in one of several lawsuits over the government’s access to certain witnesses and evidence. It was used to describe an episode in which Trump allegedly checked the contents of some, but not all, boxes of classified material, these people said. The New York Times first reported that Trump’s team “apparently conducted a dress rehearsal” before the subpoena arrived.
At the time, Trump and his legal team were in a dispute with the National Archives and Records Administration over whether he had confiscated records and property from the White House that should remain with the government. This dispute over the President’s records ultimately led to the discovery of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago – some of which were highly sensitive, including information about a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities; Iran’s missile system; and intelligence gathering against China.
The former president, people familiar with the situation said, told his aides he wanted to make sure he could keep papers he considered his property.
Trump and the Mar-a-Lago Documents: A Timeline
This dress rehearsal episode is one of several cases in which investigators see possible ulterior motives in the actions of Trump and those around him. However, lawyers for Trump and some of those witnesses have argued in recent months that prosecutors are viewing the sequence of events in too suspicious a light. They say Smith’s team did it Wrongly dismissed were claims that people were not trying to hide anything from the government but were merely performing what they considered routine and innocent jobs in the service of their boss.
Prosecutors were told by more than one witness that Trump’s Florida office at times kept confidential documents open for others to see, people familiar with the matter said. and sometimes showed them to people, including helpers and visitors.
Depending on the strength of that evidence, such reports could significantly undermine claims by Trump or his attorneys that he was unaware that he possessed classified material.
Those familiar with the situation said Smith’s team has completed most of its investigative work in the document case and believe it has uncovered a handful of clear episodes of obstructive behavior.
One of those alleged instances of disability occurred after the August 8 FBI search, according to the individuals. They didn’t give details, but the Guardian previously reported that Trump’s lawyers found a box of White House schedules in December, some of which were classified at Mar-a-Lago. In this case, a young employee appears to have transported the box from a government-rented office in nearby West Palm Beach.