Several current and former U.S. Secret Service officials are set to testify Friday before the grand jury investigating the FBI search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August, according to several reports.
On August 8 the FBI acted on a search warrant to retrieve hundreds of White House documents—more than 100 of which were marked classified—from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
Friday’s grand jury proceedings are part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, as assigned to him in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
In March, a judge ordered Trump’s primary defense attorney in the case, Evan Corcoran, to testify before the grand jury. At least two dozen people, including Mar-a-Lago staff and members of former President Trump’s inner circle, were reportedly been subpoenaed last month to testify in the investigation.
The probe is the latest in several ongoing legal challenges for the former President. Trump was arraigned in Manhattan’s criminal courthouse on Tuesday on 34 felony counts related to business fraud surrounding his role in hush money payments during the 2016 campaign season. Hours afterward, Trump spoke before a gathered audience at Mar-a-Lago in a grievance-filled speech, during which he asserted that he had the right to keep classified documents under the Presidential Records Act.
In reality, the Act says that the moment a president leaves office, the National Archives and Records Administration obtain custody and control of all presidential records from that Administration.
In fact, Smith may be focusing on obstruction in his investigation into Trump’s mishandling of White House documents post-Presidency. According to recent reporting, federal investigators have learned that Trump looked through boxes that contained classified documents after he’d already been subpoenaed to turn them over, hoping to keep some with him—and in fact did hold on to some.
Along with the documents probe and the hush money case, the DOJ and Fulton County, Georgia are each separately investigating Trump’s role in attempts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election including, on the federal level, the deadly insurrection upon the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
According to CBS News’ sources, several more Secret Service officials will be slated to appear in the coming weeks, and some have not yet been approached by the FBI.
