U.S. News
Over 700 pages of classified material discovered at Mar-a-Lago [Video]
- The U.S. National Archives informed Donald Trump’s attorney in May that they discovered over 700 pages of classified materials at the Mar-a-Lago estate back in January.
- According to the letter, Trump’s legal team repeatedly tried to delay federal and intelligence officials from reviewing the documents.
- The Justice Department suspected that there was more classified material at Mar-a-Lago, leading to additional searches and the FBI raid in August.
A recently published May letter from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) revealed that the agency discovered over 700 pages of classified materials at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate back in January, providing insight into the FBI raid on August 8.
The NARA, the agency responsible for the preservation of government records, recovered 15 boxes of classified material, some of which were marked as “top secret,” from the Florida home in January.
Acting U.S. Archivist Debra Steidel Wall relayed the information to Trump’s attorney, Evan Corcoran, in a letter dated May 10. This letter was released on Monday by conservative journalist John Solomon, who was authorized by Trump to access his presidential records in June. The NARA has since shared a copy on its website, confirming the letter’s authenticity.
Wall’s letter read, “Among the materials in the boxes are over 100 documents with classification markings, comprising more than 700 pages. Some include the highest levels of classification, including Special Access Program (SAP) materials.” These security protocols are reserved for some of the nation’s most closely held secrets.
According to the letter, Trump’s legal team repeatedly tried to delay federal and intelligence officials from reviewing the documents. Trump’s lawyers argued that they needed more time to determine if the materials were covered by executive privilege.
The letter then explained that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has found “no precedent” for a former president to use executive privilege to shield records from a sitting president, especially when the documents legally belong to the federal government.
The review was part of a federal investigation into whether Trump illegally removed documents before leaving the White House in January 2021 and whether he tried to obstruct the investigation into such.
After perusing the contents of the 15 boxes that Trump returned to the NARA, the Justice Department suspected that there was more classified material at Mar-a-Lago.
On May 11, a grand jury issued a subpoena to seek additional classified records. On June 3, three FBI agents and the department’s head of counterintelligence collected additional records from a storage room at Mar-a-Lago. Later that month, a second subpoena sought surveillance footage from security cameras, which Trump also provided.
On August 8, the FBI searched the estate and recovered over 20 additional boxes containing around 11 sets of records marked as classified.
Trump sued the Justice Department over the search on Monday and issued a court filing demanding the suspension of the review of seized materials until a special master is appointed.
Source: Aol.com
max
August 25, 2022 at 7:18 am
The GSA packed up all the documents in DC and moved them to Mar-a-Lago! Trump flagged them as unclassified.
I can’t see how Trump is at fault for anything.
Jim
August 25, 2022 at 9:50 am
The President has the authority to declassify any and all documents he chooses to, and he did so on those documents that he turned over to the DOJ and FBI way back the few years before he left office, that means those documents were no longer classified. They have records of that. How are the letters to Trump that were personal and sent through the USPO any business of the FBI? Why did they search the Former First Ladies clothing, including her underwear drawer? They even brought along a professional safecracker to break into his personal safe and confiscated his old passports! They denied it until Trump proved it and they quickly returned them. What else did they take? This was nothing more than a fishing expedition just prior to the Former Presidents possible declaration that he was going to run for President once more and they wanted to try and prevent that by putting a cloud over him! Remember, this is ABC who is part of the MSM that had been after Trump since before the election in 2016 and then ever since.
Ken Bland
August 25, 2022 at 10:05 am
Another mis-leading story. Trump had declassified all of the documents that were seized, so now the FBI, at the democrats biding, are now saying that the item seized were classified. The FBI has now joined the media as being unreliable and inept.
Everett
August 25, 2022 at 4:49 pm
They are NOT ‘classified’ if the President of the United States DEclassifies them…….another click-bait story