In a 13-page memo filed in federal court in south Florida in response to requests from The New York Times and other news organizations to release the information contained in the document, prosecutors suggested the department has undertaken a broad, intensive investigation into the handling of Mr. Trump of some of the administration’s most classified documents after he left office. Prosecutors have acknowledged interviewing witnesses in connection with the investigation into Mr. Trump’s retention of the material. They also wrote that releasing the document could jeopardize the ongoing investigation. “Disclosure of the government’s affidavit at this stage will likely spoil future cooperation from witnesses whose assistance may be sought as the investigation progresses,” prosecutors wrote. They added that releasing the affidavit could also harm “other high-profile investigations.” One of the government’s proposed reasons for not releasing the affidavit was to protect the identities of witnesses from death threats. On Monday, prosecutors in Pennsylvania unsealed charges against a man accused of repeatedly threatening to kill FBI agents in the days following the search of Mr. Trump’s property. The judge who signed the search warrant, Bruce E. Reinhart, will ultimately decide whether the affidavit should be released. It is unclear when he will rule on the media request. Legal – and political – aftershocks from the investigation were still reverberating a week after FBI agents showed up at the resort while the president was at his club in Bedminster, NJ. Mr. Trump, who has accused Attorney General Merrick B. Garland of waging a politically motivated “witch hunt” and raided his family’s belongings, claimed on Monday that the government “stole my three passports,” in a post of at Truth Social. the online platform he founded. By late Monday, the Justice Department admitted the mistake and contacted Mr. Trump’s legal team to retrieve the three passports — two of which were expired and the third an active diplomatic passport, according to one of the former president’s lawyers. Evan Corcoran, and a representative. for the department. Mr. Garland agreed last week to issue the warrant used to search Mr. Trump’s private club, but resisted efforts to release the underlying affidavit, a far more sensitive document that should contain, among other things, the reasons prosecutors believe were likely why evidence of a crime could be found at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, estate.
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The probe into the mishandling of government documents, though known for months, was not considered as important as the department’s sprawling probe into the Capitol attack, which has drawn closer to Mr. Trump and his top advisers. Federal agents removed highly classified documents when they searched Mr. Trump’s residence last week as part of an investigation into possible violations of the Espionage Act and other laws, according to a search warrant released Friday. At least one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers signed a written statement in June confirming that all material marked classified and kept in boxes at a storage facility at Mar-a-Lago had been returned to the government, four people with knowledge of the document said. . Even as the former president hit back, new details emerged about how Mr. Trump and his inner circle flouted rules, and possibly laws, governing the handling of government records. According to two people with knowledge of the situation, Mr. Trump and his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, the man who oversaw the presidential archives in the chaotic days of the government shutdown, failed to organize an effort to collect, package and deliver materials to the the National Archives — as did past presidents, and Mr. Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence. Instead, they often focused on settling political grievances and personal grudges, they said. In the weeks leading up to Mr. Trump’s departure from the White House, officials debated what to do about the material that had been moved around the residence and that needed to be properly stored and returned. By then, the staff secretary, Derek Lyons, known for trying to keep systems in place, had left the administration. Mr. Meadows said he would deal with such matters, according to a senior executive. While all this was happening, a very different scenario was playing out just across West Executive Avenue, in Mr. Pence’s less frantic office. As Mr. Trump sought to retain power, two of Mr. Pence’s top aides — Mark Short, his chief of staff, and Greg Jacobs, his adviser — drafted all of his administration documents, according to three former officials with knowledge. of the project. Mr. Jacobs spent most of his final days in administration preparing the final boxes, aiming to ensure that Mr. Pence left office without a single piece of paper that did not belong to him, one of the officials said.
