The FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search this week came months after federal investigators served an earlier grand jury subpoena and removed confidential national security documents from the property of former President Donald Trump during a June meeting, people familiar with the matter said. the subject to CNN.
Investigators carried out Monday’s search in part because they had developed evidence, including from at least one witness, that there were potentially confidential documents still lingering on the property in Palm Beach, Florida, months after the National Archives arranged for recovery. of 15 boxes of documents that included confidential information in January this year, said a person familiar with the matter.
Authorities also believed the documents remaining at Mar-a-Lago had national security implications, the report said. CNN earlier this week.
The subpoena issued ahead of the June meeting, during which investigators were shown where documents were kept in a basement room at Trump’s residence and at the private club, shows how the investigation intensified and suggests the discussions became confrontational much earlier. of Monday’s search.
The criminal investigation began with concerns about lost documents raised by the National Archives, which made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. That led to FBI interviews with aides for grand jury subpoenas for the court-authorized search and seizure this week.
Trump and his lawyers have sought to present their interactions with Justice Department prosecutors as cooperatives, and the pursuit as a shock. The subpoena was first reported by Just the News.
Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal earlier reported that the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was prompted by a tip to investigators about the possibility of additional confidential documents.
In response to questions about the grand jury subpoena, Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich said in a statement to CNN: “The unprecedented and utterly unnecessary break-in of President Trump’s home was just the latest and most egregious act of hostility by the Biden Administration, whose Justice Department was armed to harass President Trump, his supporters and his staff.”
Earlier this spring, federal investigators began interviewing members of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago team and former White House staff who were involved in moving documents from the West Wing to his Palm Beach residence at the end of his presidency, according to three people familiar with these interviews.
In addition to the grand jury subpoena for documents, the CNN previously reported that federal investigators separately served a subpoena regarding surveillance video in Mar-a-Lago, seeking to gather information about who had access to areas where documents were stored, according to people familiar with the matter.
The subpoena to the Trump Organization, the former president’s company that operates the Palm Beach property, came after the June meeting.
THE CNN previously reported that federal investigators visited Mar-a-Lago in June to discuss White House records they believed were still being held on the Palm Beach property with the former president and his attorneys.
Trump was present at the start of the meeting to greet investigators but did not stay to answer questions. During the meeting, Trump’s lawyers showed investigators documents — some of which had tags indicating they were confidential.
The agents were given custody of documents that were marked top secret or superior, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Source: CNN Brasil
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