A heavily redacted version of the affidavit was released last month, but the Justice Department asked for permission to show more of it after Trump’s lawyers disclosed the existence of a June subpoena seeking surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago grounds. warehouse. “Because these aspects of the grand jury investigation have now been publicly disclosed, there is no longer any reason to keep them sealed (ie redacted) in the filings on this matter,” the department’s attorneys wrote. Newly seen portions of the FBI agent’s affidavit show that the FBI on June 24 called for the records in June after a visit weeks earlier to Mar-a-Lago, where agents noticed between 50 and 55 boxes of records in storage space on the property. The Trump Organization provided a hard drive on July 6 in response to the subpoena, the affidavit states. Pages from the FBI’s affidavit in support of obtaining a search warrant for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property appear Aug. 26. (Jon Elswick/The Associated Press) The video could be an important part of the investigation, including whether someone has tried to obstruct the investigation. The Justice Department said in a separate filing that it “developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Vault and that efforts were likely made to obstruct the government’s investigation.” The Justice Department is investigating the possession of top-secret information and other classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House. FBI agents during their Aug. 8 search of the home and club said they discovered more than 11,000 documents, including more than 100 classified documents. WATCHES | Biden calls Trump supporters a threat to democracy:
Democrats argue that the fate of US democracy is at stake in the midterm elections
With midterm elections for the US Congress just two months away, Democrats argue that democracy itself is now on the ballot. While President Joe Biden has called Donald Trump’s supporters a threat to democracy, Trump says the legal and political forces arrayed against him are illegal, sick, evil and divisive. Separately on Tuesday, the Justice Department again urged Judge Eileen Cannon to recuse herself from key aspects of the investigation. Cannon last week granted the Trump team’s request for an independent arbitrator to review the seized documents and eliminate from the investigation any records that may be covered by executive or attorney-client claims. He also ordered the department to stop reviewing the records pending any further court orders or the completion of a report by the yet-to-be-named special master. The department urged Cannon last week to put her order on hold and told the judge Tuesday that her investigation would be harmed by the continued delay in her ability to review classified documents. “The government and the public clearly have an interest in the timely enforcement of criminal laws, particularly those that concern the protection of highly sensitive information, and especially where, as here, there may have been attempts to obstruct their investigation,” the lawyers wrote. Trump’s team on Monday urged the judge to let its order stand. His lawyers raised questions about the documents’ current classification status and noted that a president has absolute power to declassify information, though they did not say Trump had actually declassified anything. WATCHES | Documents hidden at Mar-a-Lago, DOJ says:
The US Department of Justice says documents at the Trump estate were moved, hidden after the June visit
The US Department of Justice says classified documents were “likely hidden and removed” from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an effort to obstruct a federal investigation into the records. The National Archives is still not certain it has custody of all of Trump’s presidential records, even after the FBI’s investigation into the Mar-a-Lago club, a US congressional committee said in a letter on Tuesday. The House Oversight and Reform Committee revealed that Archives staff in an Aug. 24 call could not provide assurances that they have all of Trump’s presidential records. In the letter, the committee asked the Archives to conduct an assessment of whether any Trump records remain unaccounted for and possibly in his possession. “In light of revelations that Mr. Trump’s representatives misled investigators about his continued ownership of government property and that material found at his club included dozens of ’empty folders’ for classified material, I am deeply concerned that sensitive presidential records may to remain outside the control and custody of the US government,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the oversight committee, wrote in the letter. WATCHES | Trump’s Special Master Request Approved:
Judge grants Trump’s request for expert to review seized documents
A federal judge has granted former US President Donald Trump’s request for a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago, Florida home. The House committee has jurisdiction over the Presidential Records Act, a 1978 law that requires White House documents to be preserved as property of the US government. The request is the latest development in a months-long exchange between the agency and the committee, which is investigating Trump’s handling of records. The request also comes weeks after the FBI discovered more than 100 classified documents and more than 10,000 other government documents from Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. The search came after Trump’s lawyers provided an affidavit that all government records had been returned. Maloney and other Democratic lawmakers on the panel are requesting an update from the National Archives, but have not received one because of the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal investigation into the matter. However, the letter notes a call between Archives staff and the committee on Aug. 24 where lawmakers were told documents might be missing. As a result, Maloney wrote, the committee is asking the agency to conduct an “urgent review” of all government records seized by the Trump White House to determine whether any additional records remain unaccounted for and possibly in the former president’s possession. In addition, the committee also asked the Archives to obtain a personal certification from Trump “that he has turned over all presidential records that he illegally removed from the White House after he left office.” The committee is asking the Archives to provide an initial assessment of this review by September 27.
