Donald Trump: New evidence discovered in investigations into classified documents

The US Department of Justice and the Federal Police FBI have apparently collected new evidence that indicates a possible obstruction of justice by Donald Trump. It is about the partially top secret documents that were found in August 2022 in Mar-a-Lago, the ex-president’s estate in Florida, as reported by the “Washington Post”, citing people familiar with the matter.

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations primarily target events after May 2022, when Trump’s lawyer received a subpoena to return all classified documents, the newspaper’s informants said. With the help of emails and text messages from a Trump employee, they have now been able to better reconstruct these events.

Trump is said to have examined boxes with secret documents himself

The written communications come from Molly Michael, an assistant to the former president, who followed him from the White House to Florida before eventually quitting her job last year. Michael’s texts would have provided investigators with a detailed understanding of daily activities at critical moments in Mar-a-Lago. They would have resulted in new and important evidence against Trump.

According to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, investigators now suspect that boxes of classified information were removed from a storage room in Mar-a-Lago after the subpoena was served and that Trump personally examined at least some of those boxes, apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession, the “Washington Post” continues to report. Witness testimony, security camera footage and other documentary evidence would support this suspicion.

Trump’s team had returned some documents marked as secret in response to the subpoena. However, in August 2022, during a raid on Mar-a-Lago, the FBI found more than 100 other classified documents that had not been turned over. Smith is trying to determine how it came about that these papers were still at Trump’s estate. He is determining whether the former president took or ordered action to undermine government efforts to secure all sensitive records and whether there is enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice.

A key element in most disability cases is intent. To bring charges, Smith would need to show that Trump took actions designed to obstruct or block the investigation. The Washington Post reported in October that Trump’s butler, Walt Nauta, told investigators he had been moving boxes in Mar-a-Lago on orders from the former president after the subpoena was issued. According to the newspaper, Smith’s team has surveillance camera footage that confirms Nauta’s claim and considers it important evidence.

According to the Washington Post, investigators also have evidence that Trump instructed employees in early 2022, before the subpoena, to mislead government officials in their search for classified documents. While not a crime, it could serve as evidence of the former president’s intentions. According to the sources, prosecutors can prove that Trump ignored requests from several advisers to return the documents over a period of a year. He is also said to have asked advisers and lawyers to make false statements claiming that he had returned all the papers. After receiving the summons to release the classified information, the 76-year-old became angry.

Advisers are said to have warned Trump

Investigators are also able to prove that Trump asked other lawyers and advisers how he could keep the documents after some members of his team told him that this could not be done Prosecutors also have evidence that several advisers warned Trump that trying to keep the records could be legally risky.

It is unclear how far the investigations into the secret documents have progressed. Smith’s team has been presenting its witnesses and evidence to a Washington grand jury for months. However, their meetings are secret, and Smith has not made any public statement about the pace of his investigation or when he expects it to be completed.

However, it is clear what penalties Trump faces if he is actually charged and even found guilty: The search warrant for the raid in Mar-a-Lago listed three possible criminal offenses: collecting, transmitting or losing defense information, removing or destroying official ones documents, and destroying or altering documents to hamper investigations. The first point can be punished with up to ten years imprisonment, the second up to three years and the third up to 20 years imprisonment.