FBI Agents Reportedly Missed ‘Hidden Room’ While Searching Mar-a-Lago for Government Documents
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team questioned multiple witnesses about a closet and a “hidden room” that FBI agents did not enter while executing a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022, according to ABC News.
Smith is prosecuting Trump over his retention of government documents after leaving the White House. The indictment alleges that upon leaving office, Trump took classified documents and willfully obstructed the federal government’s efforts to retrieve them. Trump has been charged in federal court in Florida on more than three dozen counts, including 30 violations of the Espionage Act. The former president pleaded not guilty on all counts.
ABC News reported on Thursday night that Smith and his investigators are trying to determine whether there are still government documents at Mar-a-Lago. Investigators reportedly discovered that while an attorney for Trump was searching a storage room for classified documents, Trump had a closet’s locks changed:
As investigators would later learn, Trump allegedly had the closet’s lock changed while his attorney was in Mar-a-Lago’s basement, searching for classified documents in a storage room that he was told would have all such documents. Trump’s alleged efforts to conceal classified documents from both the FBI and his own attorney are a key part of Smith’s indictment against Trump in Florida.
Agents did not search the closet, though they were reportedly aware of it.
Moreover, sources told ABC News that agents missed what officials called a “hidden room” on the property:
Though agents searched Trump’s bedroom, a small door in one of the walls was concealed behind a large dresser and a big TV, sources said. The space behind the wall was the “hidden room,” which maintenance workers sporadically entered to access cables running through it, sources said.
ABC News said agents were not aware of the “hidden room” until after they left.
In January 2022, the National Archives arranged for the return of government documents at Mar-a-Lago following talks with Trump’s representatives. Those representatives said they would continue to search the property for additional documents.
The FBI executed a search warrant at the property after an attorney for Trump wrote a letter to the Department of Justice in June 2022 stating that, to the best of her knowledge, no government material remained at the residence. Two months later, the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago and found additional documents. In all, Trump allegedly had more than 700 classified documents.
Smith is also prosecuting Trump in federal court in Washington, D.C. over the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump also faces state criminal charges in Georgia and New York. Despite this, he is the runaway favorite to win the Republican nomination.
