FBI found documents ‘lying in unsecure places’ at Mar-a-Lago, report says

Former president remains at centre of investigation

When FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, they found classified documents sitting in unsecured locations despite assurances from Donald Trump’s team that any such files taken from the White House had been placed under lock and key.

That new revelation comes from The Wall Street Journal, which cited “people familiar with the matter”. If true, it’s another nail in the coffin being constructed by the Justice Department for whoever is ultimately deemed responsible for the illegal storage of classified files at Mr Trump’s private residence and resort, should the files be judged not to be protected by executive or attorney-client privilege.

The proper storage of classified documents, especially those related to defence matters, is a matter that carries felony criminal liability.

According to the Journal, those documents were found outside of a locked storage room where federal officials had earlier asked the Trump team to store them, while the dispute over their existence was resolved included “highly sensitive” files.

The irony of the revelation is clear as the management of government documents including classified materials was one of the issues for which Donald Trump hammered his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton. Ms Clinton was found to have stored emails from her time at the State Department on a private server at her home.

Ms Clinton was found by the Justice Department to have been reckless in her handling of classified materials, but not criminally liable. Mr Trump oversaw the stiffening of penalties for such behaviour under his presidency.

The former president and his team have launched a wave of conspiracy theories in response to the FBI raid, accusing agents of planting evidence and stealing documents protected by attorney-client privilege without merit or factual basis for his claims.

Meanwhile, no one on Mr Trump’s team has been able to give a satisfactory answer for why documents that should have been at a minimum obtained through proper channels via the National Archives had been taken directly from the White House to Mr Trump’s resort in Florida. Some have suggested that the documents were declassified; this has been refuted by John Bolton, Mr Trump’s ex-national security adviser, as well as a previous correspondence between Donald Trump’s legal team and federal authorities that did not mention the possibility that any of the files in question had been declassified by presidential decree.

The former president continues to insist that the criminal investigation he is now a part of is actually a piece of a long-running effort by his political enemies to destroy him and prevent him from running for president in 2024, while the White House and Justice Department have both stated plainly that Joe Biden’s team is not being briefed about the situation and remains a nonfactor in the case.