In the least surprising news of the day, The New York Times reports that the Department of Justice thinks Donald Trump is still in possession of classified government documents he was previously asked to give back. According to the paper of record, Jay Bratt, who leads the department’s counterintelligence operations, informed the ex-president’s lawyers of this suspicion in recent weeks—and in a twist that will similarly blow your mind, Trump’s response to the allegation was apparently “combative.”
Of course, no one ever likes to be accused of engaging in nefarious behavior, especially if they believe themselves to be innocent. So should we be giving Trump the benefit of the doubt here? Well, let’s examine the evidence! Here’s what we know:
- Trump left the White House with reams of classified documents that were not his to take.
- In January 2022, the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of such documents—including ones marked “top secret”—from Mar-a-Lago.
- Shortly after this, Trump—who, per The Washington Post, personally packed the boxes—reportedly tried to get one of his lawyers to tell the government that all requested materials had been turned over. The lawyer in question refused to do so, because he wasn’t sure if what Trump wanted him to say was actually true.
- Spoiler alert: It wasn’t.
- In May, the government issued a grand jury subpoena for the additional classified documents. Some, but not all of them, were turned over in June. Yet a Trump attorney reportedly signed a statement saying all requested documents had been returned.
- Spoiler alert: They hadn’t.
- Apparently knowing all of this, and having become increasingly frustrated with Team Trump’s ability to ever tell the truth, the FBI eventually obtained a court-authorized warrant to search Mar-a-Lago for the remaining documents, having established that there was probable cause to believe they’d find evidence of a crime.
- In August, the FBI officially searched the place and found more than 100 additional classified documents (with at least one that reportedly contained information about a foreign government’s nuclear capabilities).
You might have thought that, at long last, that would be everything. But, surprise! The government apparently does not believe anything Trump or his associates say. According to the Times, it is “not clear what steps the Justice Department might take to retrieve any material it thinks Mr. Trump still holds.” Apart from Bratt’s outreach, there have been other signs that the DOJ did not believe it had finally recovered everything: Court filings showed that investigators who had conducted the August 8 search at Mar-a-Lago had found 48 empty folders indicating that they had previously held classified documents.
As for obtaining these leftover documents, the Times notes that the DOJ could issue another subpoena, search the property again, or attempt to get Trump to testify under oath that he had given them all back. “They could say to the court that in lieu of seeking a search warrant we’re bringing this to the court,” Bob Litt, a national security lawyer, told the outlet. “The goal is to get Trump to go on the record because he has a history of saying things out of court that he won’t go on the record for.”
In a statement, a Trump spokesman ranted that “the weaponized Department of Justice and the politicized FBI are spending millions and millions of American tax dollars to perpetuate witch hunt after witch hunt.” He did not appear to refute the idea that Trump continues to have government documents in his possession.
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