The former president was outraged that the FBI had conducted a surprise search of Mar-a-Lago and suggested that his team was complying with government requests. “[T]He didn’t need to ‘grab’ anything,” he said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. “They could have had it whenever they wanted without playing politics and invading Mar-a-Lago. It was in secure storage, with an additional lock placed at their request… …They could have it whenever they wanted—and that includes A LOT IN THE PAST. ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK.” However, CBS News has learned that weeks before the investigation, a Trump lawyer signed a document certifying that all classified materials had been removed from Mar-a-Lago, according to two sources familiar with the timing of events and the decision to search warrant requested. . That came after a June 3 meeting between Justice Department officials and the former president’s lawyers at Mar-a-Lago. A grand jury subpoena was issued in the spring, according to two sources, one close to Trump and the other, a US official. But after Trump’s lawyer certified that all classified materials had been removed from Mar-a-Lago, investigators discovered that there may actually be even more classified documents at the Florida residence because they had spoken to a handful of people familiar with the matter. where and how documents are stored in the complex. It is unclear whether these individuals are Trump or Mar-a-Lago club officials.
On Sunday afternoon, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Senator Mark Warner and Vice Chairman Senator Marco Rubio asked the Department of Justice and the Director of National Intelligence to provide the committee with classified documents seized during the Mar a Lago investigation and an “assessment of the potential risks to national security as a result of their mishandling”. The New York Times first reported the certification of Trump’s lawyer to remove classified material from Mar-a-Lago. Asked for comment on the signed document, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowitz responded: “Like every Democrat-engineered witch hunt in the past, the water in this unprecedented and unnecessary raid is being carried by a media willing to run with suggestive leaks, anonymous sources. The Biden administration thought it could “get Trump,” instead, they exposed themselves as the very people who turn democracies into dictatorships.