Trump employees moved documents at Mar-a-Lago before DOJ visit, report says

Two people employed by former President Donald Trump moved boxes of papers at his Mar-a-Lago estate one day before FBI agents and a prosecutor went to the home to retrieve classified records, The Washington Post reported, citing unidentified sources familiar with the matter.

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The newspaper previously reported that staff members moved boxes out of a storage area after Trump’s office got a subpoena for the documents in May 2022, though the timeline of when the records were moved was not known. Boxes of documents were moved back into the storage area on June 2, 2022, according to the Post.

Trump and his aides also allegedly practiced moving sensitive papers before the former president got the subpoena, the Post reported. Evidence obtained by prosecutors also indicates that Trump sometimes showed classified documents to others and kept them in his office, in a place where they could be seen, according to the newspaper.

Attorneys for Trump have asked Attorney General Merrick Garland for a meeting to discuss the investigation into the former president, according to a letter posted Wednesday by Trump on social media. In the letter, attorneys John Rowley and James Trusty say that Trump “is being treated unfairly” and asked to discuss “the ongoing injustice that is being perpetrated by your Special Counsel and his prosecutors.”

It was not immediately clear what prompted the letter.

In November, Garland named Jack Smith to serve as special counsel over Trump-related investigations, including classified documents that were found at Mar-a-Lago.

The special counsel’s investigation, which also includes whether anyone interfered with the transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election, appears to be nearing its end, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday. The grand jury over the investigation has not met since May 5, according to the Post.

Officials with the National Archives and Records Administration sought records from Trump throughout 2021 and got 15 boxes of miscellaneous papers — including more than 180 confidential records — in January 2022, according to court records. Officials subsequently served the former president with a grand jury subpoena that prompted him to turn over 38 more classified documents in June of that year, authorities said.

Officials said they later learned that Trump had failed to turn over all records in his possession, prompting them to seek a warrant to search the estate. In August 2022, authorities said they recovered thousands of documents — including about 100 bearing classification markings — during a search of Mar-a-Lago.

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, framing the investigation as part of a politically motivated witch hunt.