Trump ‘Concealed and Removed’ Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago Per DOJ’s Late Night Filing

Stunning details have emerged from a midnight filing from the Department of Justice in response to former President Donald Trump’s request for an independent review of documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago home on Aug. 8.

The 36-page filing includes several details that confirm the previous reporting and lays bare the reasoning behind the “obstruction of justice” claims mentioned in the highly-redacted affidavit that supported the search warrant released last Friday.

Most notable in the revelations is that the Justice Department has evidence that Trump “concealed and removed” classified documents in what was portrayed as an effort likely taken to “obstruct the government’s investigation,” which the DOJ had claimed in previous filings.

320 classified and/or top secret documents have been retrieved in sum total from Mar-a-Lago, the Justice Department revealed in the filing, of which over 100 were obtained in the unprecedented search and seizure of the former president’s home. The Aug. 8 retrieval of the documents also found three classified documents found in a desk in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago office.

More than 100 documents were found in 13 boxes or containers in Trump’s residents that bore classified markings, according to the filing, including three classified documents in desks inside Trump’s office. This is over twice the number of documents Trump’s legal team delivered in June when they signed a document swearing that they had returned all classified material requested by the DOJ be returned to the National Archives.

The Department of Justice also released a photo of documents seized from the Mar-a-Lago:

The filing also confirms earlier reports that a lawyer representing Trump had confirmed that there were no more classified documents at the Palm Beach mansion after a May 11 subpoena led to a June retrieval of classified material.

The New York Times reports:

But one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers present during that visit “explicitly prohibited government personnel from opening or looking inside any of the boxes that remained in the storage room, giving no opportunity for the government to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained,” the filing said.

Mr. Trump’s team also provided the department’s national security division with a written statement on behalf of his office by one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers who was serving as the formal “custodian” of the files. While that person’s name has been redacted in government filings, multiple people have identified her as Christina Bobb.

Ms. Bobb’s statement was attached to the department’s filing on Tuesday. In it, the lawyer wrote that “based upon the information that has been provided to me,” there had been a “diligent” search and all documents responsive to the subpoena were being returned.

The DOJ filing also argues that Trump “lacks standing” in his request for a special master review and that a “privilege team” has already reviewed documents not relevant to the case at hand, rendering the need for an independent arbiter moot.

This story is developing…

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