WASHINGTON — The National Archives and Records Administration’s efforts over documents taken by former President Donald Trump at the end of his term lasted more than a year and a half, leading to a regular filing with the Justice Department on Tuesday claiming that efforts “were likely being made to obstruct” a federal investigation into the missing documents.
The Justice Department’s filing came in reaction to Trump’s request for federal approval to appoint a third party to review documents seized by the FBI in its Aug. 8 search for Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s South Florida home. .
Federal prosecutors in their 36-page record, the most detailed review to date of attempts through the Department of Archives and Justice to recover documents taken from the White House and taken to Mar-a-Lago, some of which contained classified and national defense information. , they said.
The Justice Department is investigating Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, as well as imaginable obstruction of the investigation, prosecutors said. The former president claimed that he and his representatives cooperated with officials seeking to retrieve the records and alleges that he declassified the documents in question. , though accounts from FBI agents and prosecutors contradict those claims.
Legal proceedings around the search and investigation are ongoing. Here’s a look at the events that took place in the government’s attempts to retrieve the documents, drawn from recent court records, government records, and media reports.
Jan. 14: Six days before the presidential transition, movers are photographed taking boxes off the White House compound and banging them against nearby trucks.
January 18: CBS Miami reports that trucks are observed at Mar-a-Lago.
January 19: Trump tells the Archives that he has appointed Mark Meadows, Pat Cipollone, Pat Philbin, Scott Gast, Steven Engel and Michael Purpura, who served in his tenure at the White House or the Justice Department, as his representatives to handle issues. on the archives of his presidency.
May 6: The Archives asks Trump to turn over the missing documents and continues to request the documents until the end of December.
December: A Trump representative informs the Archives that they placed 12 boxes of curtains at Mar-a-Lago and the company arranges for them to be safely returned to Washington. Archive officials say they “did not do so or ‘looted’ the Mar-a-Lago property. “
January 18: Fifteen boxes of documents, some with classified documents, are retrieved at Mar-a-Lago through representatives of the Archives.
January 31: The Archives says in one that some of Trump’s presidential records they won included “paper files that had been broken by” the former president.
“As has been reported in the press since 2018, those guilty of managing the White House files under Trump’s direction recovered and recorded some of the broken recordings,” the firm said. “These were turned over to the National Archives at the end of Trump’s tenure, along with several broken documents that had not been reconstructed by the White House. “
The Archives point out that, according to the Presidential Archives Law, all documents created by presidents must be passed to the company at the end of their administrations.
February 7: The Archives verifies that in mid-January they arranged for the 15 boxes containing the presidential files to be transported from Mar-a-Lago to the agency. It says Trump’s representatives “continue to search” for other documents belonging to the archive and notes that, under federal law, they were transferred from the White House at the end of the Trump administration.
Feb. 9: The Office of the Inspector General of Archives sends a reference to the Justice Department asking it to investigate Trump’s handling of the files. The reference notes that an initial examination of the 15 boxes taken at Mar-a-Lago indicated that they contained newspapers, published newspaper articles, photos, notes, presidential correspondence and “many classified documents. “
“The biggest fear was that the highly classified files would be degraded, combined with other files and incorrectly identified [sic] in a different way,” the reference said.
Feb. 18: David Ferriero, then a U. S. archivist, sends a letter to House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, informing her that some of the boxes recovered through the Archives in mid-January contained pieces marked as classified national security information, and asked Her Trump officials to continue to search for more presidential documents that have been transferred to the archives.
Ferriero told Maloney that because the Archives knew the data classified in the boxes, he had been in communication with the Justice Department.
April 11: The White House Office of Counsel officially submits a request for the Archives to provide the FBI with the 15 boxes recovered at Mar-a-Lago for examination.
April 12: The Archives says it contacted Trump’s “authorized representative” about the 15 boxes of documents seized and informed his attorney Evan Corcoran about the Justice Department’s “urgency” of needing access. The firm also informs Trump’s lawyer that it intends to provide the documents to the FBI next week.
Corcoran then asked the Archives to postpone disclosure to the FBI until April 29.
April 29: The Justice Department’s Homeland Security Division tells Corcoran that there are “important national security interests within the FBI and other members of the intelligence network who have those documents. “
More than a hundred documents with classification marks totaling more than 700 pages were among the fabrics contained in the boxes recovered through the Mar-a-Lago Archives, according to the Ministry of Justice, some of which boast the “highest degrees of classification, adding special material to the program. “
The ministry adds that the documents are mandatory “for the purposes of our ongoing investigation of criminals. “
That day, Trump’s lawyer asked for another delay before the files were turned over to the FBI and said that if the extension was not granted, his letter would serve as a “protective confirmation of executive privilege. “
May 10: Acting archivist Deborah Steidel Wall informs Corcoran in a letter that there is “no basis” for the former president to make a “protective declaration of executive privilege” and that he would not honor Trump’s claim of “protective” privilege.
Wall also told Corcoran that the Archives would provide the FBI with the files taken at Mar-a-Lago on May 12.
May 11: The Justice Department obtains a subpoena to appear before a grand jury requesting “all and all” classification documents that are owned by Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The subpoena sets May 24 as the deadline for the filing of the requested records and for the custodian of Trump’s records to appear in U. S. District Court in Washington.
In a separate letter from Jay Bratt to Evan Corcoran, Bratt thanked him for “agreeing to settle for service” of the subpoena and said the custodian of Trump’s files can comply with the subpoena by turning over the appropriate documents to the FBI. It also notes that the depositary must provide sworn certification that the documents “represent all reactive records. “
May 16-18: FBI agents conduct an initial examination of the 15 boxes recovered from Mar-a-Lago and locate classified documents in 14 of them. The fund includes: 184 documents with classification marks, of which 67 are marked as confidential, 92 are marked secret and 25 are marked as most sensitive secret.
May 24: Trump’s lawyer requests an extension to comply with the subpoena, and the administration eventually pushes the date back to June 7.
May 25: Corcoran informs the Justice Department in a letter that Trump has an absolute right to declassify documents.
June 2: Corcoran contacts the Justice Department and asks FBI agents to retrieve documents responding to the May mar-a-Lago subpoena.
June 3: Three FBI agents and Bratt, the Justice Department’s head of counterintelligence, go to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve documents in response to the subpoena and seek a solution to the Files dispute with the former president.
Trump’s lawyer and the custodian of the files receive and deliver a giant envelope, “doubly wrapped in duct tape,” which he documents. Neither claims Trump declassified the files or claimed executive privilege, federal prosecutors said in a file detailing the meeting.
The custodian of Trump’s post-presidential workplace archives presents a certification attesting that a “diligent search” was conducted on the boxes that were moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago to locate the documents covered by the grand jury subpoena and that “any and all compatible documents” were provided with the certification.
Trump’s lawyer said all files brought from the White House to Mar-a-Lago are stored in one place, a garage room on site, and that there are no other records stored in personal offices or other locations on the property. In addition, it states that all available boxes have been registered.
FBI agents and Bratt have access to the garage room, whose boxes contain “clothes and non-public items” of Trump and the first girl, Melania Trump, according to Trump’s judgment.
But the Justice Department said the government was not allowed to open or take a look at the internal boxes left in the garage room, “which did not give the government an opportunity to verify that no documents with classification marks remained. “
The FBI then examines the documents in the envelope and discovers 38 unique documents with classification marks, adding five documents marked as confidential, 16 marked as secret, and 17 marked as most sensitive secret.
June 8: Bratt sends a letter to Trump’s team warning that “Mar-a-Lago does not come with a legal safe place for the classified information garage” and requests that the room be secure.
Trump’s lawyers acknowledge receipt of the letter a day later. Trump orders him to place a momentary bolt on the garage door, he says in his lawsuit.
June 19: Trump appoints Kash Patel, a former Pentagon official, and John Solomon, a conservative commentator, as his “representatives for the presidential archives,” in a letter to the Archives.
June 22: Federal investigators craft a subpoena for the security camera at Mar-a-Lago, and Trump’s team executes, handing over the camera to the U. S. government. USA
Aug. 5: The Justice Department requests and obtains a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago from a federal justice of the peace who is sentencing in West Palm Beach.
The branch says that prior to the order, the FBI “uncovered several resources of evidence” indicating that the classified documents were still at Mar-a-Lago, despite the affidavit made on June 3.
Federal prosecutors say the FBI also “developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and disposed of the garage room and that efforts were likely made to obstruct the government’s investigation. “
The search warrant approved by the judge allows the FBI to search for “Office 45,” which is Trump’s mar-a-lago work area, as well as all garage rooms and other rooms used or available to Trump and his staff where boxes can simply be stored.
August 8: The Ministry of Justice executes the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago around 10 a. m. m. Al at least two of Trump’s lawyers, Christina Bobb and Lindsey Halligan, are present, and Bobb shows a directory of receipts of assets seized through the FBI at 6:19 p. m.
Among the pieces stolen through the agents are Trump’s passports, which are then returned. The Justice Department states in its next filing that, within the parameters of the search warrant, “the government seized the contents of a table drawer containing classified documents and government records combined with other documents,” adding two official passports.
“The location of passports is applicable evidence in an investigation into unauthorized detention and mishandling of national defense information; however, the government has to return those passports at its discretion,” federal prosecutors wrote in the case.
During the execution of the arrest warrant, the government seized 33 boxes, boxes or evidence from both the garage and Trump’s office. A team of researchers examining the fabrics found that thirteen boxes or boxes contained documents with classified markings, adding more than a hundred unique documents with classification marks. Three classified tagged documents are in Trump’s office offices, prosecutors said, and another 76 were discovered in the garage room.
A partially redacted photo included in the Justice Department’s record shows that some documents recovered from Trump had colored covers indicating their ranking status. Records range from “CONFIDENTIAL data to VERY SECRET data, and some documents included more sensitive compartments that signify very limited dissemination,” the Justice Department said.
Aug. 11: Attorney General Merrick Garland makes a statement about the search and shows that he personally approved the resolution to request the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago. The Justice Department also takes a resolution to disclose the order amid requests from media companies. adding CBS News, for the Justice of the Peace to issue a judgment to also reveal the underlying affidavit outlining the motives for the search.
August 12: Trump does oppose the release of the search warrant and the federal Justice of the Peace dismisses it.
The Archives also publishes an article refuting Trump’s claims related to former President Barack Obama’s handling of records. The firm says it “assumed sole legal and physical custody of Obama’s presidential records when President Barack Obama left the workplace in 2017, pursuant to the Presidential Records Act. “
August 15: The Justice Department returns Trump’s passports to his lawyers. A trump spokesman tweets an email confirming that the FBI used a screening team to remove evidence seized but not complying with the court order.
Aug. 18: The federal justice of the peace who approved the search warrant request holds a hearing on the requests for publication of the underlying affidavit and asks the Justice Department to redact them, to be filed a week later.
August 22: Trump files a lawsuit opposing the Justice Department’s appointment of a special teacher to review the seized files. The request comes more than two weeks after the initial search.
August 24: The acting archivist sends a letter to those dealing with the investigation, calling his firm “fiercely apolitical” and refuting politically motivated allegations.
August 25: The Justice Department submits a redacted edition of the search warrant’s underlying affidavit. Considering the presentation satisfactory, the investigator issues a judgment on his release the next day.
August 26: The redacted affidavit is made public.
In a letter to Congress, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines confirms that the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are facilitating a review of the classification of seized applicable documents. The intelligence bureau will also look at national security risks.
August 27: U. S. District JudgeAileen Cannon, who chairs Trump’s request that a third party read about the seized items, questions an initial order that states she will most likely appoint a special teacher.
August 29: The Justice Department informs Cannon that the selection teams, acting from the investigative teams, have finished their search for potentially privileged documents in the seized files.
Aug. 30: The Justice Department presents a 36-page reaction to Trump’s request for a special teacher, calling it “useless” and revealing that they have evidence that Trump’s team may have obstructed their investigation.
August 31: Trump claims on Truth Social, his social networking site, that he has declassified the recordings of the photo redacted by the FBI.
“It’s terrible the way the FBI, the Mar-a-Lago raid, threw random documents to the ground (pretending maybe I did!) and then he started taking pictures of them for the public to see. They thought they were looking for them to remain secret?Good thing they have declassified me!” he writes.
However, federal prosecutors claimed in their filing that Trump’s representatives never “claimed that the former president declassified the documents or claimed privileges. “
Separately, Trump’s legal team is coming up with a 19-page reaction to the Justice Department’s opposition to the appointment of a special teacher. Lawyers for the former president urge Cannon to use a third party to review documents seized at Mar-a-Lago and criticize the execution of the search warrant as “unprecedented and without legal basis. “
“If nothing is done, the Department of Justice will challenge, disclose, and publish selective aspects of its investigation and any remedies,” they write.
Federal prosecutors argued that sensitive documents extracted from Trump’s assets belonged to the government and were returned to the Archives at the end of his tenure in January 2021. But Trump’s lawyers respond in their filing that “the idea that presidential documents involve data has never been a cause for alarm. “
They also argue that the Archives deserves to have made a “good faith effort” with Trump to retrieve the records, though the firm has made public letters indicating its apparent willingness to work with the former president’s team to retrieve the documents brought to Mar-a. -Lacquer.