Former US President Donald Trump waves while walking to a vehicle outside of Trump Tower in New York City on August 10, 2022. –
STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images
The FBI’s search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lagoo has sparked new questions about missing classified documents.
Here is a timeline on the missing Trump papers and how the FBI came to search Mar-a-Lago.
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The FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida follows months of allegations that the former president mishandled government records, including reports of him ripping up documents and photos of notes with handwriting resembling his that he reportedly tried to flush down the toilet.
Republicans have attacked the FBI for carrying out the warrant, with Trump calling it “political persecution” and allies in conservative media like Fox News promoting the idea that evidence was “planted.”
The Justice Department is investigating whether he violated three federal laws, including the Espionage Act, when he took classified documents to the resort.
Here’s a timeline of events:
February 7
The National Archives and Records Administration confirms a Washington Post report that Trump took several boxes of official White House records and memorabilia to Mar-a-Lago when they should have been turned over to NARA, an independent federal agency that preserves government and historical records.
The agency confirms arranging transport to recover 15 boxes of documents, and said Trump and his staff were “continuing to search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives.”
The items were said to include correspondence from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and a letter former President Barack Obama left Trump in 2017.
February 9
NARA asks the Department of Justice to investigate whether Trump violated federal record-keeping laws, The Washington Post reported.
Under the Presidential Records Act, official White House records should be given to the agency when a president leaves office.
February 22
Attorney General Merrick Garland acknowledges during a news conference that NARA informed DOJ that classified material was found on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.
“We will do what we always do under these circumstances: look at the facts and the law and take it from there,” he said.
August 8
The world learns the FBI carried out a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home when he announced it, himself, in a statement, calling it an “unannounced raid” on his home.
Trump, who was not at his South Florida club at the time, confirmed the search after it was first reported by Florida Politics.
—Peter Schorsch (@PeterSchorschFL) August 8, 2022
Also that day, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman shares photos with Insider that show notes in the bowls of two toilets with handwriting resembling Trump’s. The images were also published Monday by the news outlet Axios.
August 11
Attorney General Merrick Garland says that that the Justice Department has filed a motion in court to unseal the Mar-a-Lago search warrant and property receipt.
“The Department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances and the substantial public interest in this matter,” Garland said. “Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the Justice Department and of our democracy. Upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly without fear or favor. Under my watch, that is precisely what the Justice Department is doing.”
Prior to Garland’s remarks the Justice Department publicly declined to comment on the matter.
Following Garland’s remarks on Thursday a judge who signed off on the warrant ordered the Justice Department to confer with Trump’s legal counsel by 3 pm EST Friday to confer if Trump wants to fight the release of the documents.
Later in the day, Trump wrote on his social media platform that he supports the “immediate release” of the search warrant.
August 12
Trump on Friday put out another statement accusing former President Barack Obama of also holding on to classified documents after he left the oval office.
“President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!”
The statement came hours after he responded to a Washington Post report that the FBI searched for classified documents that contained nuclear information, calling that a “hoax.”
The Wall Street Journal also reported on Friday that the FBI took 11 sets of classified documents back with them after searching former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
News later broke that DOJis investigating whether Trump broke three federal laws, including the Espionage Act.