Two Trump employees moved boxes of papers one day before the August 8 FBI raid to retrieve White House documents from the former President’s Florida country club residence, Mar-a-Lago, the Washington Post reported Friday.
The Post further reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, that Trump and his aides allegedly carried out a “dress rehearsal” for moving sensitive papers even before his office received a May 2022 subpoena from the Department of Justice.
Additionally, the Post’s sources also claim that federal prosecutors have gathered evidence suggesting that Trump at times kept classified documents in his office in a place where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others.
The latest developments come the same week that the Wall Street Journal reported that the roughly six-month special counsel probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents was wrapping up, and that some of Trump’s “close associates are bracing for his indictment” after prosecutors in recent weeks completed interviews “with nearly every employee at Trump’s Florida home, from top political aides to maids and maintenance staff.”
Following the Journal’s report, Trump attorneys sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting a meeting related to the Special Counsel investigation into possible criminal activity.
Garland, so far, has not responded to the request, in which Trump attorneys call special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of potential criminal activity by Trump “baseless…outrageous and unlawful.”
Also revealed this week: Smith has been pouring over the detailed notes taken by former Trump attorney Evan Corcoran regarding the handling of classified documents.
In early April it was revealed that DOJ and FBI investigators had gathered evidence pointing to possible obstruction of justice by Trump regarding the classified documents.
A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment on the latest reporting from the Post. DOJ officials have previously said they conducted the Mar-a-Lago search only after months of efforts to retrieve all classified documents there were unsuccessful.
