FBI quest for Trump documents started with breezy chats, tour of crowded closet

An aerial view of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is pictured, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla (Photo: AP)
An aerial view of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is pictured, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla (Photo: AP)

Summary

Why interactions between FBI, Trump team soured remains a mystery

Around lunchtime on June 3, a senior Justice Department national security supervisor and three FBI agents arrived at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida to discuss boxes with government records sitting in a basement storage room along with suits, sweaters and golf shoes.

A few days later, the FBI sent a note asking that a stronger lock be installed on the storage room door, signing off: “Thank you. Very truly yours, Jay Bratt, chief of counterintelligence and export control section."

In the following weeks, however, someone familiar with the stored papers told investigators there may be still more classified documents at the private club after the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes earlier in the year, people familiar with the matter said. And Justice Department officials had doubts that the Trump team was being truthful regarding what material remained at the property, one person said. Newsweek earlier reported on the source of the FBI’s information.

Two months later, two dozen Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were back at Mar-a-Lago with a warrant predicated on convincing a federal magistrate judge that there was evidence a crime may have been committed. After hours at the property, the agents took the boxes away in a Ryder truck.

Many elements of what happened between those events—one seemingly cordial, the other unheard of—remain unknown. But the episode points to a sharp escalation in the Justice Department’s inquiry into Mr. Trump, which also includes an investigation into the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol. And it has prompted outrage from Republicans, who have rallied around Mr. Trump as he contemplates running again for president.

The mystery may only be resolved by the Justice Department’s next steps. FBI Director Christopher Wray, appointed by Mr. Trump in 2017, on Wednesday referred questions to the Justice Department, which declined to comment.

Mr. Trump and his lawyers contend they have cooperated with a monthslong effort by the government to retrieve some of the material he took from the White House and expressed outrage with Monday’s unannounced visit to Mar-a-Lago. A timeline of events, they say, demonstrates this cooperation, down to quickly fulfilling the June request to place a new lock on the storage door.

Monday’s search came after weeks of internal deliberation among senior Justice Department and FBI officials and marked an escalation of their investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified material, people familiar with the matter said.

The controversy began after Mr. Trump left office, when the National Archives and Records Administration reached out to his team to ask for what it thought were missing records. All official documents are required to be turned over under the Watergate-era Presidential Records Act.

The Archives in January retrieved 15 boxes of documents and other items from Mar-a-Lago.

The boxes contained some documents archives officials described only as “classified national security information," prompting them to refer the matter to the Justice Department for investigation.

Aides to Mr. Trump have said they had been cooperating with the department to get the matter settled. The former president even popped into the June 3 meeting at Mar-a-Lago, shaking hands. “I appreciate the job you’re doing," he said, according to a person familiar with the exchange. “Anything you need, let us know."

Five days later, Trump attorney Evan Corcoran received an email from Mr. Bratt, the chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence and export control section, who oversees investigations involving classified information.

“We ask that the room at Mar-a-Lago where the documents had been stored be secured and that all the boxes that were moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago (along with any other items in that room) be preserved in that room in their current condition until further notice," according to what was read to The Wall Street Journal over the phone.

Mr. Corcoran wrote back, “Jay, thank you. I write to acknowledge receipt of this letter. With best regards, Evan." By the next day, according to a person familiar with the events, a larger lock was placed on the door. It was the last communication between the men until Monday’s search of Mar-a-Lago, according to the person.

On June 22, the Trump Organization, the name for Mr. Trump’s family business, received a subpoena for surveillance footage from cameras at Mar-a-Lago. That footage was turned over, according to an official.

On a sunny Monday morning, Aug. 8, a new set of agents arrived and began a search for documents at around 9 a.m. The warrant, signed by a judge in Palm Beach County, refers to the Presidential Records Act and possible violation of law over handling of classified information, according to Christina Bobb, a lawyer for the former president. The warrant hasn’t been made public by Mr. Trump nor has the inventory of documents retrieved by the government.

FBI officials showed up with instructions to keep the search as unobtrusive as possible, with agents dressed in plainclothes and told not to take any weapons, people familiar with the plan said. The Secret Service was notified and then Mr. Trump’s lawyers. On site, the FBI asked for several things, according to a person familiar, including a diagram of the sprawling building and that surveillance cameras be turned off, citing officer safety.

Dressed in T-shirts and cargo pants, the agents targeted three rooms—a bedroom, an office and a storage room, one of the people said. The agents went undetected for most of the day until a Florida political blogger tweeted about it and Mr. Trump issued a statement saying his home was “under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents."

At the end of the day, they hauled away roughly 10 more boxes of material, some of the people said. The seized documents remain with the FBI’s Miami field office, a person familiar with them said.

“Monday’s brazen raid was not just unprecedented, it was completely unnecessary," Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said. “President Trump and his representatives have gone to painstaking lengths in communicating and cooperating with all the appropriate agencies."

In the days since then, Mr. Trump’s associates have been reaching out to defense attorneys to see if they would represent Mr. Trump in the matter, a sign of concern over the former president’s potential legal trouble.

 

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