Trump had additional classified documents in Florida storage unit: Report
Ryan King
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Attorneys for Donald Trump reportedly turned over at least two new items with classified markings to the FBI after they were discovered in a storage unit used by the former president in Florida.
That material surfaced after an outside team hired by Trump combed through his properties over recent weeks amid pressure from a judge to comply with a May grand jury subpoena demand to hand over classified documents, sources told the Washington Post. The new documents emerged at one of Trump’s storage units in West Palm Beach.
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Similar to the document trove in Mar-a-Lago, there was no cataloging of material holed up in the storage unit, per the Washington Post. It is not immediately clear what type of information was mentioned in the two new items. Trump’s team also reportedly deployed outside help to comb through his other properties, including his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club and Trump Tower in New York.
Searches in New Jersey and New York yielded no additional classified material. Trump’s lawyers also gave the bureau the option of supervising the searches, but the FBI opted not to do so because it typically does not observe external proceedings like that, the Washington Post reported.
Trump’s legal team has been butting heads with the Department of Justice in the courtroom over recent weeks over the classified documents. Prosecutors at the DOJ had chided Trump’s team for dragging their feet to comply with the May subpoena.
The May subpoena was issued after the National Archives informed the DOJ that it uncovered documents with classified markings from the trove Trump turned over in January. After the subpoena was issued, federal officials arrived at Mar-a-Lago in June to collect additional classified documents.
One of Trump’s lawyers signed a statement attesting that the documents with classified markings had been turned over. She reportedly managed to put in a disclaimer in that statement to help fend off any liability.
The government remained unconvinced they collected everything in June, and the FBI later embarked on the Aug. 8 raid, in which agents confiscated over 100 documents with labels ranging from “CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET information,” according to court records.
Trump has decried the Mar-a-Lago raid as a “witch hunt” and “unAmerican break-in.”
Shortly after the August search and seizure, a court battle ensued. Trump snagged a short-lived victory when a judge he appointed granted his request for a special master to root out privileged material from the Mar-a-Lago stash. An appeals court subsequently scrapped that special master review.
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Meanwhile, the DOJ has reportedly been weighing whether violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice pertaining to Trump’s hoarding of documents at his Florida estate transpired.
After Trump announced his 2024 campaign last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel to oversee DOJ investigations involving the Trump document debacle as well as the department’s sprawling Jan. 6 inquiry, which has reportedly zeroed in on Trump on several occasions.