Trump search team finds at least 2 classified documents outside of Mar-a-Lago
A team hired by Donald Trump discovered more records marked classified outside of his Florida residence, which was raided in August by the FBI searching for such documents, NBC News confirmed Wednesday.
The Washington Post first reported that a team hired by Trump found at least two items marked classified in a West Palm Beach, Florida, storage unit connected to the former president. Those items were immediately turned over to the FBI, according to the Post.
The New York Times later published a similar report about the search and discovery.
“People close to Mr. Trump had said earlier on Wednesday that no classified material had been found during the searches, a claim that was later proved incorrect,” the Times reported.
Two people familiar with the matter later confirmed that two documents marked classified were found in a federal storage facility containing Trump’s possessions. The storage unit is run by the General Services Administration and Trump has never been inside it, one of the people told NBC.
The search of other Trump-linked properties outside of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach was conducted after a federal judge urged the former president’s lawyers to confirm they had fully complied with a grand jury subpoena requiring them to surrender any material marked classified.
In addition to the storage unit in Florida, Trump’s golf club in Bedminister, New Jersey, and Trump Tower in New York City, also were reportedly searched.
Trump is under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice for his removal of government records from the White House when he left office in January 2021, as well as for possible obstruction of justice in connection with efforts by federal authorities to recover those documents.
An FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 discovered thousands of pages of government documents, more than 100 of which were marked classified or highly classified.
A lawyer for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC about the reports.
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Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/07/trump-team-finds-classified-documents-outside-mar-a-lago.html