The Justice Department says the documents were “allegedly hidden and removed” from Mar-a-Lago in an obstruction investigation.

The Justice Department says the classified documents were “allegedly hidden and removed” from former President Donald Trump’s Florida compound as part of an effort to prevent a federal investigation from revealing government records.

The FBI also seized boxes and containers containing more than 100 confidential records during a search in Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 and discovered confidential documents hidden in Trump’s office. A tense interaction between Justice Department officials and Trump representatives over the discovery of government secrets.

The filing offers another indication of the sheer volume of classified records that have been retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. It shows how investigators are focusing their criminal investigation not only on why records were improperly filed, but also whether they were deliberately misled about the continued and illegal existence of confidential documents.

A timeline set by the Justice Department revealed that the extraordinary search for Mar-a-Lago took place only after other efforts to obtain the records failed and because police suspected additional documents remained on the property despite Trump’s assurances. representatives that “as a result of a diligent search” all materials were considered.

It also included images of some of the seized documents with colored covers indicating their classified status, perhaps to indicate that whoever packaged or processed them at Mar-a-Lago would not easily appreciate their sensitive nature.

The photo shows the outer pages of top-secret documents bound in a clip, some marked “TOP SECRET // SCI” with a light yellow border and one marked “SECRET // SCI” with a rust-colored border, the pages bleached together , stretched out on a mat at Mar-a-Lago. Next to them is a cardboard box filled with gold-framed photographs, including a magazine cover.

While it contains key new details about the investigation, the Justice Department’s filing fails to address a key question that fueled public enthusiasm about the investigation: why Trump kept the documents after leaving the White House, and why he and his team withstood repeated attempts. to return them. In fact, this suggests that the employees did not receive a response.

During a June 3 visit by FBI and Justice Department officials to Mar-a-Lago, the document states: the building. Almost five months after the production of the fifteen boxes and almost a year and a half after the end of management”.

That visit, which took place weeks after the Justice Department issued a subpoena, is the focus of the document and appears to be the main focus of the investigation.

Although Trump insisted again on Wednesday that he had declassified the documents at Mar-a-Lago, his lawyers did not suggest this during the visit and instead “treated us in such a way that lawyers believed the documents were confidential.” “. he said. .

FBI agents who went there to retrieve additional materials received “a double-taped Redweld envelope containing the documents,” the statement said.

This envelope, according to the FBI, contained 38 unique documents with classification marks, including 16 classified documents and 17 classified documents.

Investigators were allowed to visit the vault but were not allowed to open or look inside any of the boxes, “giving the government an opportunity to confirm that no secretly marked documents were left behind,” the Defense Department said.

During that visit, the document says, Trump’s lawyers told the investigators that all the records that came from Casa Blanca were kept in a single place, the Mar-a-Lago deposit, and that “there were no other records stored In private. The office space or other location in the building and all available boxes were searched.”

Subsequently, however, the department, which released video footage of the property, “developed evidence that government records were allegedly hidden and removed from storage and that the efforts were likely to obstruct the government’s investigation.” Archiving does not identify the people who may have moved the boxes.

During the August search, agents found classified documents both in a warehouse and in the former president’s office, including three classified documents found not in boxes but on office desks.

“The fact that the FBI uncovered twice as many classified documents in a matter of hours as the “diligent search” that the former president’s attorneys and other officials had weeks to conduct casts serious doubt on the statement made in the Dec. June and draws attention. question cooperation in this matter at scale”, says the document.

He said, “In some cases, both FBI counterintelligence personnel and Department of Justice attorneys conducting the review required additional authorization before being allowed to review certain documents.”

The investigation was prompted by the National Archives and Records Administration, which in January removed 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago containing 184 confidential documents, including top-secret information.

Tuesday night’s filing was intended to counter a request by Trump’s legal team that the special master review documents seized during this month’s search and return some seized property to him. US District Judge Ailee Cannon will hear arguments on the matter on Thursday.

On Saturday, Cannon said it was his “preliminary intention” to name that person, but he also gave the Justice Department a chance to respond.

On Monday, the department said it had completed its review of potentially privileged documents and had identified “a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information.” He said Tuesday that a special master was “unnecessary” and that presidential records seized from the house did not belong to Trump.