Between the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill, challenges to the 2020 election, and his impending second impeachment, President Donald Trump has had a chaotic few last days in office. Amid the chaos and the realization that every campaign challenge was failing, Trump began instructing his aides to gather documents he planned to take with him to Mar-a-Lago, according to an NBC News report published Saturday. Two sources with knowledge of the situation told the outlet that Trump aides were hastily stuffing documents and other materials into bankers’ boxes that were then sent to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club and residence in Palm Beach. One source said Trump only began seriously making plans to leave the White House after Jan. 6, his final two weeks in office, after months of unfounded claims that he had won the election. “It was a chaotic exit,” the source told NBC. “Everybody piled everything — staff, White House movers — into the moving trucks. When they got to Mar-a-Lago, they piled everything into that warehouse, except for things like the first lady’s clothes. Everything in a box went there .” The source said Trump was in a “dark place” at the time and that he “didn’t care about the boxes,” adding: “If you had brought him into that warehouse and asked, ‘What are your presidential papers?’ he couldn’t tell you.” Mar-a-Lago was raided Monday by FBI agents, who seized 11 boxes of classified material, some of which were classified as “top secret,” according to court records unsealed Friday. The raid was part of a Justice Department investigation into possible violations of three laws related to the handling of government records, including part of the Espionage Act. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and claimed he had declassified all records at Mar-a-Lago, though he provided no documentation of the declassification. The New York Times reported Saturday that one of Trump’s lawyers told the Justice Department in June that all classified documents had been returned. But given the recovery of additional classified documents on Monday, the report raises questions about how cooperative and forthcoming the former president and his team have been with investigators. Trump’s office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. During his four years in office, Trump developed a reputation for not listening to presidential records, which are required by law to be preserved. Reports say Trump would tear up the papers or even flush them down the toilet. Some of his former staff members also told him that he would ask to keep certain documents. Loading Something is loading.
