1 of 3 | Security patrols Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on August 8, when FBI executed a search warrant looking for documents taken from the White House by former President Donald Trump at the end of his presidency. File Photo By Gary I Rothstein/UPI |
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Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Some four months after federal agents found dozens of classified records in a raid on Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, lawyers for the former president have turned over to the FBI additional classified-marked records that were only recently uncovered.
At least two documents were turned in to federal authorities after they were found at a West Palm Beach, Fla., storage unit close to the former president's Mar-a-Lago home, sources familiar with the matter told The New York Times, The Washington Post and NBC News.
The Justice Department has been investigating Trump on criminal allegations that he illegally took a trove of government records with him when he left the White House in early 2021.
In May, a grand jury issued a subpoena directing Trump to return all classified documents in his possession, which produced 38 such records.
However, a subsequent government investigation found evidence that Trump had not fully complied with the subpoena, and in August, FBI agents raided Mar-a-Lago, producing thousands of government documents, including more than 100 bearing classified markings.
Amid litigation over the seized documents, Justice Department officials in October warned the former president's counsel that they believe further documents were still missing, The New York Times reported, citing two people briefed on the matter.
That same month, Trump's lawyers hired an outside firm to conduct searches at several locations, including the West Palm Beach storage unit, according to the reports.
The nature of the documents was unknown, but their discovery is further evidence that the former president has failed to comply with the May subpoena and that classified documents taken from the White House were not only kept at Mar-a-Lago.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, said in a statement to The Times and The Post that the former president and his counsel "continue to be cooperative and transparent, despite the unprecedented, illegal and unwarranted attack against President Trump and his family by the weaponized Department of Justice."
