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Prosecutors have urged a federal judge to hold Donald Trump’s office in court for not fully complying with a May subpoena to return all classified documents in its possession, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign of how controversial the private conversations have been. know if the former president still has any secret role.
In recent days, Justice Department lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell to hold Trump in contempt, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the court proceedings. sealed But the judge has yet to hold a hearing or rule on the request, they said.
The request came after months of growing Justice Department frustration with Trump’s team, a frustration that escalated in June after the former president’s lawyers said a diligent search had been conducted of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club and residence. But the FBI amassed evidence that suggests—and later confirmed through a court-authorized search—that many more remained.
One of the key areas of disagreement centers on Trump’s legal team’s repeated refusal to appoint a records custodian to sign a document certifying that all classified materials have been returned to the federal government, according to two of these people . The Justice Department has repeatedly requested an unequivocal written assurance from the Trump team that all of these documents have been returned, and the Trump team has refused to appoint a custodian of records to sign this statement while guaranteeing that they have returned the documents.
The precise wording of the file could not be determined because it remains sealed. Trump is under investigation for three possible crimes: mishandling classified documents, obstruction and destruction of government records.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the former president’s lawyers “continue to be cooperative and transparent.” He added: “This is a political witch hunt unlike anything this country has ever seen.”
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.
Trump’s team has searched a number of his other properties in recent weeks, in response to Justice Department concerns and the judge’s instructions, and has turned over two classified items to the government. Trump advisers told the FBI that the items were found in a warehouse used by the former president in West Palm Beach, Florida. Other Trump properties searched in recent weeks include his Bedminster golf course in New Jersey and his Trump Tower home and office in Manhattan. . People familiar with those searches for a private company say no classified documents have been found at those sites.
Trump’s side has taken the position that such a request is unreasonable: No lawyer could sign such a general certification of good faith or advise any client to do so, instead of certifying that the search for a certain location has been completed in good faith. . Some of Trump’s lawyers are also wary of making any claims under oath based on Trump’s word alone, two people familiar with the matter said.
The government’s request for a contempt finding highlights the fundamental mistrust that has existed since the spring between the government trying to recover sensitive documents and a former president whose answers have proven unreliable. This mistrust has led to a legal impasse in the sealed papers over what constitutes a full search of classified papers.
When the government first issued a subpoena in May for any documents with classified marks, the official recipient of that subpoena was the former president’s office of custodian of records, a role that Trump’s team she eventually told the government that she was attorney Christina Bobb.
In June, Bobb signed a certificate that a diligent search had been conducted for any such material, but the FBI collected compelling evidence that this was not the case. The government received a court-authorized search warrant in August, which produced 103 more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago that had not been turned over in response to the subpoena.
But after months of back-and-forth, the basic question still hasn’t been answered to the Justice Department’s satisfaction: Are there still more classified items in the former president’s possession? Prosecutors, having previously been burned by empty promises, now want unconditional votes from someone in the official role of custodian of records that there are no more classified skeletons in any of Trump’s closets.
Prosecutors have asked the judge to find Trump in contempt as long as none of his advisers are willing to take on the role of custodian of records responsible for a full answer to the question, these people said. In recent months, Bobb has said publicly that he is not doing legal work related to the documents case, but is only advising Trump’s PAC on election matters.
If the judge were to agree, the most likely scenario would be a daily fine until the demands of the contempt motion are met. The amount of the fine, or who would be forced to pay it, would depend on the judge.
It is not uncommon for large organizations to appoint a records custodian who can assume formal legal responsibility for the company or entity’s files. In Trump’s case, the subpoena sent in May was formally addressed to the custodian of his office’s records. No person has been named in the application.
Prosecutors have said in court filings that after Trump’s lawyers received the May subpoena, they asked for additional time to comply before agreeing to meet on June 3 to hand over the records. The night before the scheduled meeting, Bobb, a lawyer and former One America News anchor, was called by Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn and asked to join attorney Evan Corcoran in the meeting with Justice Department lawyers, according to a person familiar with the account that he later gave to the fbi Bobb had never met Corcoran before.
At the June 3 meeting, Bobb handed the Justice Department a letter that began by saying she had been designated as the bureau’s custodian of records for subpoena purposes, according to people familiar with the conversation. The certification, with a redacted name, has been included in court records. The letter told Bobb that a “diligent search” had been made for boxes “moved from the White House to Florida” and that all documents responsive to the subpoena were being turned over.
The person close to Bobb has said she told the FBI she was skeptical of the letter and insisted on adding a disclaimer saying it was based on information provided by others.
Last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to take over the investigation into the classified documents, along with an investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. In recent weeks, several advisers to Trump appeared before a grand jury hearing evidence in the classified documents case.
Stephen Ryan, a white-collar criminal defense attorney, said it’s usually not difficult to figure out who should serve as a company’s custodian of records. “In the normal course of business, if you’re a real business, you have records and you have custodians of those records that you can call,” he said. “He is the person who has custody of the records as part of his day-to-day activities.”
In this case, however, there is no Trump representative who actually maintained control of the records. “The department is asking for something that doesn’t exist,” he said. “This is an extraordinary problem that is actually relatively unique.”
At this point, he said, “no one wants to stick their head in the guard’s noose.”