Trump lawyer statement raises fresh questions
A lawyer for former United States President Donald Trump reportedly signed a false statement saying all classified material held in boxes at Trump’s Mar-a-lago residence had been returned to the government.
The letter signed by the lawyer in June raises fresh questions about whether or not Trump or his legal representatives lied to federal authorities in their ongoing investigation into the handling of classified materials from his time in the White House, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
As part of the probe, the FBI last week executed a search warrant at Mar-a-lago, with agents removing 11 sets of classified documents. The New York Times noted in its report that the lawyer’s statement “is a possible indication that Trump or his team were not fully forthcoming with federal investigators about the material”.
The statement was signed by one of Trump’s lawyers after Jay Bratt, a top national security official in the US Department of Justice (DOJ), visited Trump’s South Florida beach club on June 3, according to the New York Times. Bratt met two Trump lawyers to discuss the handling of classified information during the visit, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
The sources did not identify exactly when the letter was signed or by whom. It was part of an ongoing correspondence with the Justice Department over the issue.
It was previously reported that Justice officials left the June meeting at Mar-a-lago with classified information. investigators developed evidence, including from a witness, that led them to believe there was more classified information in documents stored at the complex.
The former president was indignant that the FBI had undertaken a surprise search of Mar-a-lago and suggested that his team had been complying with the government’s requests.
“[T]hey didn’t need to ‘seize’ anything,” he said in a Truth Social post on Friday. “They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mara-lago.”
Court documents unsealed and released on Friday identify three federal crimes that the DOJ is examining as part of its investigation: violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records. The inclusion of the crimes indicated the department had probable cause to investigate those offences as it was gathering evidence in the search. No one has been charged with a crime.