In the months leading up to the FBI’s dramatic move to execute a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Florida home — and open his safe for items — federal authorities grew increasingly concerned more because Trump or his lawyers and aides had not actually returned all of it. documents and other materials that were government property, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Officials suspected that when Trump returned items to the National Archives about seven months ago, the former president or people close to him kept key records: despite a Justice Department investigation into the handling of 15 boxes of material sent to the former president’s private club and residence in the final days of his administration.
During months of discussions on the matter, some officials also came to suspect that Trump’s representatives were sometimes untruthful, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
On Tuesday, a Trump lawyer said agents who brought the court-approved warrant to Mar-a-Lago a day earlier took about 12 more boxes after conducting their search.
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People familiar with the investigation said Justice Department and FBI officials traveled to Mar-a-Lago this spring, a meeting first reported by CNN. Officials spoke with Trump representatives, inspected the storage space where the documents were kept and expressed concern that the former president or people close to him still had items that should be in government custody, said these people.
At the time, National Archives officials had aggressively reached out to people in Trump’s orbit to demand the return of documents they believed were covered by the Presidential Records Act, two people familiar with the matter said. with these queries. Like the others, they spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the investigation.
Christina Bobb, a lawyer for Trump, said his lawyers were involved in discussions with the Justice Department this spring about materials withheld from Mar-a-Lago. At the time, the former president’s legal team rummaged through two to three dozen boxes in a storage area, looking for documents that could be considered presidential records, and turned over several items that might meet the definition, he said.
In June, Bobb said, she and Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran met with Jay Bratt, the head of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence and export control division, along with several investigators. Trump stopped at the meeting as he began to greet the investigators, but was not interviewed. The lawyers showed the boxes to federal officials, and Bratt and the others spent some time looking at the material.
Bobb said Justice Department officials commented that they did not believe the storage unit was properly secured, so Trump officials added a lock to the facility. When FBI agents searched the property Monday, Bobb added, they broke the lock that had been added to the door.
The FBI removed a dozen boxes that had been stored in the basement storage area, he said. Bobb did not share the search warrant left by agents, but said it indicated agents were investigating possible violations of laws related to the handling of classified material and the Presidential Records Act.
Trump aides also declined to share the search warrant with The Washington Post.
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Trump announced Monday that the FBI had raided Mar-a-Lago and searched his safe, denouncing the move as the latest unfair action against him by the Justice Department and the FBI. Spokesmen for both agencies declined to comment.
Asked for comment Tuesday about whether the former president or his advisers had withheld documents or been dishonest, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich called the FBI’s action “not only unprecedented, but completely unnecessary.”
“President Trump and his representatives have made every effort to communicate and cooperate with the appropriate agencies,” Budowich said in an emailed statement. “In the Democrats’ desperate attempt to hold on to power, they have unified and grown the entire conservative movement.”
An adviser who spoke to Trump after the search said the former president seemed encouraged by the development, bragging about how many Republicans were publicly supporting him, and said Trump thought the search would help him politically in the end. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.
Another adviser, former spokesman Jason Miller, said: “It furthers his inclination to run and galvanizes the Republican base on his behalf.”
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Some of Trump’s advisers have urged him to ramp up his long-awaited announcement that he will run for president in 2024 and make it early at Mar-a-Lago, with the FBI’s investigation as a backdrop. But Trump has not committed to doing so, said a person with direct knowledge of the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private exchanges.
Two people familiar with the initial recovery of the materials at Mar-a-Lago, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said Archives officials believed more records were missing and were skeptical that Trump would have delivered everything. . As the investigation gathered steam, some Trump advisers have tried to stay away from the issue, fearing it would become a messy legal and political situation, according to people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations
After Monday’s search, lawyers close to Trump sought advice or recommendations of criminal defense lawyers who could represent Trump, a person familiar with the lawyers said. According to this person, the lawyers said the order was related to allegations that Trump withheld classified information.
Trump already has several attorneys working for him, but it’s not uncommon for people facing investigative activity to seek local attorneys to navigate a particular judicial district.
Some top Republicans are echoing Trump’s unsubstantiated claims discrediting the FBI probe
Dozens of Trump supporters came to Palm Beach on Tuesday to show their support. Adriane Shochet, 64, of Lake Worth, Fla., bought a $14 broom, which she attached to an American flag and waved as she stood in the driveway overlooking part of Mar-a – Lake
“I just needed to go out there and show the whole free world that this is scary, and if they can do it, what’s next?” Shochet said. “This is the polar opposite of any political effect they thought it would have because all it does is empower the right politically.”
Passing motorists honked their horns in support. A man stood on the bridge, which crosses the Intracoastal Waterway, holding the American flag upside down, widely recognized as a symbol of his belief that the country is in trouble.
Pat Stewart, 85, found the “Trump 2020” flag that used to fly at his home in Jupiter, Florida, which he hoped to keep hidden until the next presidential election. For the next few hours, he basked in the sun alongside a visiting friend from Michigan, who is also 85, waving to passing motorists.
“I was very angry, very angry and very upset that our government would do this to a former president,” Stewart said. Although aides said Trump was in New York and his golf club and residence in Bedminster, N.J., this week, he held out hope that he would be at Mar-a-Lago.
“We want him to come out and announce that he’s running for president,” Stewart said.
A person familiar with the investigation said agents were conducting a court-authorized search as part of a lengthy probe into why the documents, some of them top secret, were taken to the private club and residence of the former president instead of sending them to the National. Archives and Records Administration when Trump left office. The Presidential Records Act requires the preservation of notes, letters, memos, e-mails, faxes, and other written communications related to a president’s official duties.
15 Boxes: Inside the Long and Strange Journey of Trump’s Classified Records
In January, the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents and other items from Mar-a-Lago. David S. Ferriero, then the U.S. archivist, said in a statement in February that Trump’s representatives were “continuing to seek” additional records.
Trump resisted handing over some of the boxes for months, some people close to the president said, believing that many of the items were his personal and did not belong to the government. He eventually agreed to hand over some of the documents, “giving them what he thought they were entitled to,” in the words of an adviser.
Tim Craig in Palm Beach, Florida contributed to this report.