Former US President Donald Trump hired people to search four properties after a federal judge ordered him to look more closely at any classified material still in his possession. At least two documents marked “classified” were found in a sealed box at one of the sites, according to a person briefed on the matter.
Trump’s search team discovered the documents at a federally managed facility in West Palm Beach, Florida, the source said, prompting his lawyers to notify the Justice Department.
The New York Times reported in October that Justice Department officials had told the former president’s lawyers that they believed he may have more classified materials that were not returned pursuant to the subpoena issued in May. The FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and residence in Florida, in August, looking for more confidential documents and other presidential records.
People close to Trump said on Wednesday that no classified material was found during the searches, a claim later proven incorrect.
After the Justice Department’s warning, there was a discussion among Trump’s lawyers about whether to call in an independent firm to conduct a search.
According to two people familiar with the events, the discovery of the documents in the storage unit, maintained by the General Services Administration, a federal agency, occurred during a series of broader searches that concluded around Thanksgiving and were conducted on Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey; at Trump Tower in New York; and a storage room in Mar-a-Lago.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, said in a statement that the former president and “his attorney continue to be cooperative and transparent despite the unprecedented, illegal and unwarranted attack on President Trump and his family by the Department of Justice.”
The department is investigating the former president’s handling of thousands of government documents, including more than 300 confidential ones, which were taken from the White House at the end of his term and found in Mar-a-Lago. Prosecutors are also trying to determine whether Trump obstructed the administration’s various attempts to recover the materials.
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