Back in October, The New York Times reported that—despite the government showing up to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in January 2022 to retrieve 15 boxes of documents that were not his to take from White House; Trump subsequently trying to get one of his lawyers to falsely tell the government that all requested materials have been turned over; the government issuing a grand jury subpoena for the remainder of them in May; a Trump attorney signing a statement in June saying they had all been returned; and the FBI searching Mar-a-Lago in August and finding more than 100 additional classified documents—the Department of Justice believed that the ex-president was still in possession of government records that were not his to keep. And, as it turns out, that hunch was right!
According to The Washington Post, lawyers for the 45th president—and current 2024 candidate—uncovered “at least two items marked classified after an outside team hired by Trump searched a storage unit in West Palm Beach, Fla., used by the former president,” according to sources familiar with the matter. A person who spoke to the outlet said that, in addition to the classified documents, the storage unit contained boxes of “suits and swords and wrestling belts and all sorts of things.” According to Trump advisers, nothing in the unit had been catalogued, as had been the case with the classified Mar-a-Lago documents, some of which reportedly contained information about a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities. As the Post notes, “the ultimate significance of the classified material in the storage unit is not immediately clear, but its presence there indicates Mar-a-Lago was not the only place where Trump kept classified material” and “provides further evidence that Trump and his team did not fully comply with a May grand jury subpoena that sought all documents marked classified still in possession of the post-presidential office.”
Team Trump, of course, continues to insist that the ex-president has totally not spent months giving the federal government the runaround and has been as honest as a person can be. “President Trump and his counsel continue to be cooperative and transparent,” spokesman Steven Cheung told the Post, despite the fact that this is quite obviously not the case. (Cheung is also accusing the Department of Justice of waging an “unprecedented” and “unwarranted attack” against Trump and his family.) Additional searches were reportedly performed at Trump Tower in New York, Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, NJ, and in a storage closet at Mar-a-Lago.
In October, The New York Times reported that Walt Nauta, a valet for Trump, had been captured on camera moving boxes out of a Mar-a-Lago storage room “both before and after the Justice Department issued a subpoena in May demanding the return of all classified documents.” Nauta is said to have been interviewed by the DOJ on “several occasions.” Naturally, Trump’s Save America PAC is footing the valet’s legal bills, and those of at least one other key witness.
Bess Levin
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