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      Two Trump lawyers could be witnesses or targets in FBI investigation

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      Two Trump lawyers could be witnesses or targets in FBI investigationChristina Bobb and Evan Corcoran face scrutiny over their communications with the justice department, legal experts say Two lawyers for Donald Trump could become witnesses or targets in the obstruction investigation connected to the criminal probe of the former president’s unauthorized retention of highly-sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, according to legal experts.The lawyers – Christina Bobb and Evan Corcoran – face becoming ensnared in the investigation because they liaised with the justice department during the government’s months-long effort to retrieve boxes of presidential records and classified documents from Trump’s Florida home.Trump Mar-a-Lago home searched over ‘likely’ efforts to hide files, DoJ saysRead moreAt issue is an interaction that took place on 3 June in which, according to a court filing submitted by the justice department in a separate but related case on Tuesday, the two lawyers made representations that they had complied with a grand jury subpoena that subsequently proved to be false.That day, the justice department’s chief of counterintelligence, Jay Bratt, and three FBI agents travelled to Mar-a-Lago to collect the documents that had been subpoenaed, the filing said, and Bobb and Corcoran turned over a taped, Redweld envelope of classified materials.But before Bratt departed, Bobb produced and signed a letter certifying that all and any documents responsive to the subpoena were being turned over, while Corcoran indicated that the records the government had sought were confined to one storage room, the filing said.The trouble for the two Trump lawyers is that the justice department then developed evidence through multiple sources that additional presidential and classified documents remained at Mar-a-Lago – which proved to be the case when the FBI searched the property two months later.In its own filing Wednesday night, Trump’s lawyers decried the search as having taken place in “the midst of the standard give-and-take” between a former president and the National Archives and Records Administration over presidential records. It said the department had “gratuitously” made public certain information, including a photograph of classified documents taken from the home.According to the search warrant and court filings, the justice department is investigating among other crimes whether there was potential obstruction of justice with respect to how Trump and his lawyers have seemingly been resistant to return documents belonging to the government.The justice department’s account of the 3 June episode – what it has described as a “likely” effort to conceal presidential and classified documents sought by the government – raises the prospect that both Bobb and Corcoran could become witnesses in the obstruction investigation.But the case, and how the justice department might approach the issue, remains complex.The question for federal prosecutors becomes whether the two Trump lawyers willfully misled the justice department so that Trump could keep the documents, or whether the lawyers made the representations because they themselves were misled by Trump.To establish the exact circumstances surrounding Bobb’s confidence in signing the certification, and Corcoran’s confidence in his statements, legal experts said, the justice department would probably have to move to subpoena both of the lawyers for communications and testimony.Such a step would immediately run into an issue about attorney-client privilege, since the kind of information the justice department would be trying to extract for a potential obstruction case targeting Trump would be protected communications between Trump and his lawyers.Trump boasted he had ‘intelligence’ on Macron’s sex lifeRead moreThe privilege exists to protect the rights of defendants who might have committed an offense, since they need to be able to speak candidly with their lawyers about what happened without the fear that prosecutors could use their discussions against them at a trial.The protection can be removed through the so-called crime-fraud exception. But even if there were a crime-fraud exception in Trump’s case, his lawyers could still invoke their fifth amendment right against self-incrimination if they had knowingly misled the government on his behalf.Ultimately, the issue for the justice department is whether the attorney general, Merrick Garland, gives his approval to move ahead with an extraordinary prosecution for obstruction against the former president, and whether Garland does so against his lawyers.If Garland chooses to take that step, federal prosecutors would probably move to find ways to compel Bobb and Corcoran’s testimony to reveal whether Trump obstructed the return of presidential records and classified materials, the legal experts suggested.If Garland decides against pursuing an obstruction indictment, then, even though justice department investigators might seek testimony from Bobb and Corcoran anyway, they are unlikely to secure meaningful information unless it also litigates the privilege issues in court.People close to the former president’s top lawyers broadly did not appear to believe either Bobb or Corcoran would be compelled to testify against Trump and remove themselves from the legal team. And as of Wednesday, neither had retained their own counsel, one of the people said.TopicsDonald TrumpUS politicsFBInewsReuse this content More

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      FBI searched Trump Mar-a-Lago home over ‘likely’ efforts to hide classified files, justice department says

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      FBI searched Trump Mar-a-Lago home over ‘likely’ efforts to hide classified files, justice department saysCourt filing alleges files were found despite Trump lawyers saying all documents had been returned The FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after it obtained evidence there was probably an effort to conceal classified documents in defiance of a grand jury subpoena and despite his lawyers suggesting otherwise, the justice department said in a court filing.The recounting – contained in a filing from the justice department that opposed Trump’s request to get an independent review of materials seized from Mar-a-Lago – amounted to the most detailed picture of potential obstruction of justice outlined to date by the government.“Efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation,” the justice department alleged in its filing on Tuesday night.Among the new revelations in the 36-page filing were that FBI agents recovered three classified documents from desks inside Trump’s office at Mar-a-Lago and additional classified files from a storage room, contrary to what the former president’s lawyers indicated to the justice department.The justice department said in the submission that, after a Trump lawyer in May accepted service of a subpoena for materials removed from the White House, the lawyer and Trump’s records custodian in June gave the government a single Redweld legal envelope, double-taped, that contained the documents.As Trump’s lawyer and custodian turned over the folder to Jay Bratt, the justice department’s chief counterintelligence official, the custodian produced and signed a letter certifying a “diligent search” had been conducted and all documents responsive to the subpoena were being returned.The lawyer for the former president also stated to Bratt that all the records in the envelope had come from one storage room at Mar-a-Lago, that there were no other records elsewhere at the resort, and that all boxes of materials brought from the White House had been searched, the justice department said.The custodian who signed the letter has been identified by two sources familiar with the matter as Christina Bobb, a member of Trump’s in-house counsel team, though a copy of the letter reproduced by the justice department in the filing redacted the custodian’s name. But the FBI subsequently uncovered evidence through multiple sources that classified documents remained at Mar-a-Lago in defiance of the subpoena, and that other government records were “likely” concealed and removed from the storage room, according to the filing.The justice department said in its submission that the evidence – details of which were redacted in the search warrant affidavit partially unsealed last week – allowed it to obtain a warrant to enter Mar-a-Lago, where FBI agents found more classified documents in Trump’s private office.“The government seized 33 items of evidence, mostly boxes,” from its search of Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, the filing said. “Three classified documents that were not located in boxes, but rather were located in the desks in the ‘45 Office’, were also seized.”Illustrating the contents of the 8 August seizure, in an exhibit resembling how the justice department would show the results of a drug bust, the filing included a photo of the retrieved documents emblazoned with classification markings including “top secret” and “secret” designations.The justice department added that the documents collected most recently by the FBI included materials marked as “sensitive compartmented information”, while other documents were so sensitive that the FBI counterintelligence agents reviewing the materials needed additional security clearances.“That the FBI,” the filing said, “recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the ‘diligent search’ that the former president’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform, calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification.”After painting an extraordinary portrait of the hurdles that the justice department had to overcome to even recover the documents that belong to the government, prosecutors argued that Trump had no basis to seek the appointment of a so-called special master to review the files.The request for a special master in this case fails, the filing argued, because Trump is attempting to use the potential for executive privilege to withhold documents from the executive branch – which the supreme court decided in Nixon v GSA did not hold.The justice department added that even if Trump could somehow successfully assert executive privilege, it would not apply to the current case because the documents marked classified were seized as part of a criminal investigation into the very handling of the documents themselves.Trump is expected to press on with his request for a special master and to obtain a more detailed list of materials taken from Mar-a-Lago, according to a source close to his legal team, which also disputed that the justice department’s filing raised the likelihood for an obstruction charge.On Tuesday morning, before the justice department filed its response minutes before a court-imposed midnight deadline, Trump added a third lawyer, the former Florida solicitor general Christopher Kise, to his outside legal team, said two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. 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      Trump seized classified documents – but for Republicans the story is Hunter Biden’s laptop | Lawrence Douglas

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      Trump seized classified documents – but for Republicans the story is Hunter Biden’s laptopLawrence DouglasThere was a time when Republican lawmakers took dangerous security breaches seriously but Trump’s actions are unworthy of attention for the likes of Senator Ron Johnson In a Friday appearance on Newsmax, the rightwing media site, Ron Johnson blasted the FBI for not being aggressive enough in following the evidence. Was the great patriotic Republican senator from Wisconsin angry that the FBI had waited too long before searching Mar-a-Lago for illegally stashed documents critical to US national security? Hardly. What agitated Johnson was an alleged whistleblower’s complaint that the FBI had failed to take the “necessary investigative steps after receiving Hunter Biden’s laptop”.Remember laptop-gate? The FBI received the laptop back in 2020 from a computer repair shop owner who claimed the PC had been left in his shop but never retrieved by Hunter Biden. Analysts determined that much of the data was a “disaster” from a forensics standpoint, as the hard-drive had clearly been accessed by persons other than Biden’s son. Nonetheless, after exhaustive studies completed earlier this year, both the New York Times and the Washington Post concluded that some of the retrieved material had been authentic; and while it showed that Hunter clearly tried to trade on his father’s name, it failed to indicate any corruption on Joe Biden’s part.For the likes of Senator Johnson, the laptop remains the story of the hour. Unworthy of the senator’s attention was the release of the redacted affidavit that indicated former president Trump, in defiance of a subpoena, had refused to hand over documents that had the highest security classification and arguably included the names of American intelligence assets abroad. There was a time when Republican lawmakers took dangerous security breaches seriously. But this was back when Republican lawmakers also recognized the possibility of electoral defeat after a fair vote.Senator Johnson was hardly alone in his peculiar priorities. The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, attacked the “raid” on Mar-a-Lago as “another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves”. Also joining the attack was former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who earlier lamented, “look what the DoJ did … to President Trump, while it slow-rolls and looks the other way on Hunter Biden”. And while Senator Johnson is yet to join Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar in their calls to “defund the FBI”, the Wisconsin senator insists the handling of the laptop affair demonstrates the FBI’s “corruption”; the bureau, he concludes, is “not to be trusted”.If we struggle to characterize the unrelenting efforts of those like Johnson, who defend Trump through systematic misdirection and by attacking the integrity of US institutions of law enforcement, President Biden himself supplied a helpful term – “semi-fascism”. In a speech given last Thursday, the president rightly described “Maga Republicans” as a “threat to our very democracy”.The rise of semi-fascism within the heart of the Republican party underscores the exceptional risks in indicting Trump and bringing him to trial. That some form of indictment will soon follow now seems increasingly likely. The redacted affidavit reveals that in hoarding and refusing to surrender government documents, Trump may have violated three separate federal criminal statutes, which carry penalties from three to 20 years imprisonment. And this investigation is unrelated to the criminal fraud inquiry in Manhattan; the election interference investigation in Georgia; and the Department of Justice’s examination of the election tampering scheme that culminated in the violence of January 6.While many no doubt eagerly look forward to Trump’s day of legal reckoning, dread is the more proper response. When even a Maga-lite lawmaker like the Florida senator Marco Rubio counters the president’s claim of authoritarian strains within the Republican party by tinnily declaring, “If you’re looking for authoritarianism, look no further than what happened under the watch of Anthony Fauci and his allies in the elite establishment,” we know that any future indictment will be greeted by hysterical and violent attacks on the integrity of the US system of justice.And yet the costs of inaction are greater still than the costs of moving against Trump. A failure to indict born of fear of the political risks of doing so suggests that Trump and the semi-fascists have already succeeded in deforming the rule of law in America. Holding Trump to legal account may not succeed; it may trigger civil unrest and redound to his favor. But it may also begin a long, painful process of removing the poison of Maga authoritarianism from our body politic.Those who cherish democracy need to call out the proto-fascist tendencies now seizing the Trump-occupied Republican party.
      Lawrence Douglas is the author, most recently, of Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020. He is a contributing opinion writer for the Guardian US and teaches at Amherst College
      TopicsUS newsOpinionUS politicsMar-a-LagoDonald TrumpHunter BidenJoe BidenRepublicanscommentReuse this content More

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      US investigates fake heiress who infiltrated Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort

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      US investigates fake heiress who infiltrated Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resortA Ukrainian woman posed as a Rothschild to gain access to the Florida resort, heightening fears over security lapses A second foreign national is being investigated by US authorities for gaining access to Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida resort which is at the center of an FBI probe over missing classified documents, heightening fears over security lapses both during and after his presidency.According to an article from the Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a Ukrainian woman posing as a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty is under bureau investigation after infiltrating the private members club under a false pretense.IRS to review security at facilities as threats from extremists increaseRead moreInna Yashchyshyn, 33, allegedly lied to members that she was a Rothschild heiress and mingled with Trump, US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and others at Mar-a-Lago functions.OCCRP, in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Gazette, reported that Yashchyshyn had demonstrated “the ease with which someone with a fake identity and shadowy background” could bypass security at Trump’s club.Earlier this month, the FBI obtained a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago as part of a criminal probe over the unauthorized retention of government secrets by Trump and his aides, who failed to return the documents in question despite repeated requests.On Saturday, Congress members Adam Schiff and Carolyn Maloney – respectively, the chairpersons for the House intelligence and oversight committees – said that the US intelligence director, Avril Haines, had confirmed that her subordinates, along with the Justice Department, would evaluate whether the improper storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago had risked or caused any damage to national security.The search came a month after the heads of the FBI and Britain’s domestic security service MI5 issued a sharp warning about systemic challenges posed to western economies and governments by Chinese espionage.Yashchyshyn – the daughter of an Illinois truck driver – maintained that she was a Rothschild heiress while holding a position as president of United Hearts of Mercy, founded by Florida-based Russian oligarch Valery Tarasenko in Canada in 2015.OCCRP and the Post-Gazette reported that “both the FBI’s office in Miami and the Sûreté du Québec provincial police in Canada have launched investigations that touch on her dealings”.While the FBI refused to comment, its Canadian counterpart confirmed that its major crimes unit launched an investigation into Yashchyshyn earlier this year.Word of the investigation into Yashchyshyn comes three years after a Chinese national approached a Secret Service agent outside Mar-a-Lago and claimed to be a member who wanted to use the pool. After passing the checkpoint, Yujing Zhang told a receptionist she was there to attend an event given by the United Nations Chinese American Association.But no such event was on the calendar, and agents later found that she was carrying two Chinese passports, $8,000 in cash, four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive, a thumb drive containing computer malware – but no swimsuit.She also claimed to speak English poorly, though agents later testified that Zhang spoke and read English well.Zhang was charged with making false statements to federal agents and illegally entering a restricted area. Zhang later received an eight-month prison sentence and was deported to China after being convicted of trespassing and lying to Secret Service agents.The security lapses at the club involving Zhang and Yashchyshyn for some called to mind an episode early in Trump’s presidency where he was talking with then-Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe on a patio about a response to a North Korea missile test while diners looked on.In a particularly stunning moment, a guest who snapped a picture of Trump and Abe later took a selfie with a military aide carrying the black leather satchel carrying the codes needed to launch a nuclear strike, which is nicknamed “the football”.“It’s unheard of,” a deputy national security adviser to Joe Biden in the Barack Obama White House said at the time. “These people operate behind the scenes. I don’t think this team has any appreciation about the vulnerabilities they are creating for themselves and how dangerous this is.”The Trump White House press secretary at the time, Sean Spicer, later insisted that no classified information was discussed and the leaders’ discussions were focused on the logistics of press statements they were to give.Abe, who left office in 2020, was assassinated while giving a campaign speech in the Japanese city of Nara last month in an unrelated case.New details into the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago emerged Friday when a heavily redacted affidavit justifying the search explained how investigators believed that highly sensitive national defense information and evidence of obstruction of justice were at the ex-president’s property.The document detailed how an FBI review of materials Trump had returned to the National Archives in May 2022 concluded that he had kept sensitive government secrets at Mar-a-Lago.The justice department said among the documents recovered by the National Archives, 184 had classification markings. Some were stamped “SI” for special intelligence, “HCS” for intelligence from human clandestine sources, and “NOFORN” for “Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals”.TopicsDonald TrumpMar-a-LagoFBIUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      The FBI’s Mar-a-Lago affidavit paints an unsettling portrait of Trump | Lloyd Green

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      The FBI’s Mar-a-Lago affidavit paints an unsettling portrait of TrumpLloyd GreenAccording to the affidavit, the government previously found in Trump’s possession 184 documents marked ‘classified’, 67 marked ‘confidential’, 92 marked ‘secret’, and 25 ‘top secret’ Donald Trump is a life-long teetotaler. But at this moment, he may want to re-consider his commitment to sobriety.Early on Friday afternoon, a heavily redacted version of the much-vaunted FBI affidavit went public. It did not paint a flattering portrait of the 45th president or his environs.“[P]robable cause exists to believe that evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed … will be found at the premises,” it read. Prison times under the statutes cited in the affidavit run the gamut from three to 20 years, depending on the specific offense.Redacted Trump Mar-a-Lago affidavit released: five key takeawaysRead moreSection 793 addresses defense information and section 1519 is directed at the “destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy.” Section 2071 speaks to the “concealment, removal, or mutilation” of documents.For Trump, a candidate and incumbent who made “lock her up” a rallying cry, the latest developments make him look ridiculous. And that is being generous.These developments also place an unwelcome millstone around the neck of the Republicans – who pride themselves on law, order and national security – as the US careens toward its midterm elections.Despite being heavily redacted, the affidavit says plenty. Mar-a-Lago had become a storage facility for documents that Trump should never have transported when he exited the White House. Unfortunately, he believed the mantra of Louis XIV, France’s Sun King: “L’état, c’est moi.”In May 2022, according to the affidavit, the government found in Trump’s possession 184 documents marked “classified”; 67 marked “confidential”; 92 marked “secret”; and 25 marked “top secret.” But Trump’s nightmare doesn’t end there.FBI agents “observed markings reflecting” human intelligence sources and other highly sensitive intelligence categories, the affidavit says. Trump, an ex-reality show host, makes Hillary Clinton look almost fastidious.Or as Trump framed things on social media, “WE GAVE THEM MUCH.” To be sure, he did not say, “WE GAVE THEM ALL.” Here, it is a distinction with real world significance.As the affidavit hit the docket, reports emerged of a woman posing as a member of the Rothschild family playing golf with Trump and Lindsey Graham while ingratiating herself with Trump’s supporters. Talk about synchronicity.The incidents are under active investigation in the US and Canada. Her alleged real identity is Inna Yashchyshyn, a Russian-speaking immigrant from Ukraine.This latest episode stands as a cross between Maria Butina and Inventing Anna. Life imitates life. History can be repetitive. One thing is clear, security is not a primary concern for Trump.Meanwhile, the clock ticks down for Merrick Garland, the attorney general, and Trump. Under justice department practice, politically sensitive prosecutions cannot be launched within 60 days of an election.As a result, Labor Day in early September marks a cut-off for indicting Trump until after November’s congressional contests. Two related questions are “if and when” Trump declares his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.One way or another, the former guy will appear on this fall’s ballot. Beyond that, the release of the redacted affidavit raises the issue of disclosure of a non-redacted version by the Biden administration to the senior members of Congress, the so-called Gang of Eight.By law, the Speaker of the House, the House minority leader, the Senate’s majority and minority leaders, together with the chairs and ranking minority members of the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress are entitled to be briefed on covert actions.They have reportedly requested relevant information.To be sure, the FBI frowns on briefing Congress on open investigations. Here, however, the barn door is wide open. The horse has bolted. Indeed, it was Trump who publicized the court-approved search.The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has reported that the “[s]ourcing and information the FBI would’ve needed to pinpoint those locations with such confidence, suggests [that] there are people close to the former president potentially cooperating with this investigation”.Can you say, “GoodFellas and Henry Hill”? In other words, the walls around Trump may be closing. A man with few friends, he may need someone he can talk to without furthering a conspiracy or paying $1,000 an hour.Signs are not encouraging. Earlier this week, Jared Kushner, whose own father received a Trump pardon, scrambled to distance himself from Ivanka’s dad.Asked by Fox News about Trump’s handling of classified material, Kushner demurred. “Like I said, I’m not familiar with what was in the boxes,” he answered. “But I think President Trump, he, uh, he governed in a very peculiar way and when he had his documents, I’m assuming he did what he thought was appropriate.”And if Trump can’t count on his son-in-law to deliver something other than a potpourri of word salad, who can he trust?
      Lloyd Green served in the Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992
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      DoJ to release redacted Trump Mar-a-Lago affidavit after judge’s order

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      DoJ to release redacted Trump Mar-a-Lago affidavit after judge’s orderAffidavit contains key information about investigation into retention of government secrets at ex-president’s Florida home The justice department is expected to file on Friday a redacted version of the affidavit justifying the search warrant used to seize sensitive government documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida earlier this month, after being ordered to do so by a federal judge.The order from judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the warrant and is overseeing the case from West Palm Beach, Florida, instructed the justice department to submit the redacted affidavit that he had reviewed – itself previously under seal – in the public docket before noon.In an earlier two-page ruling, the judge said the justice department’s proposed redactions were narrowly tailored to keep secret grand jury material, the identities of uncharged individuals and sources and methods used in the criminal investigation – and the remainder could become public.“The government has met its burden of showing that its proposed redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the government’s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and are the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire Affidavit,” Reinhart wrote.The affidavit contains key information – notably the probable cause – about the justice department’s investigation into the unauthorized retention of government secrets at Mar-a-Lago, which, according to the warrant, could constitute violations of at least three criminal statutes.The imminent partial release of the affidavit is set to prove a major juncture in the developing investigation, being led by the justice department’s national security division, and the attorney general, Merrick Garland, who personally approved the warrant after days of deliberations.Exactly how much of the affidavit will be redacted was not clear, but they are expected to be extensive. The justice department had originally opposed unsealing the affidavit at all, and only filed a redacted version after being forced by Reinhart last week.But depending on how the affidavit was produced, several former US attorneys said, it could also contain elements that are not directly related to the investigation, such as descriptions of potential crimes that the justice department suspected were being committed at Mar-a-Lago.The former president has indicated on his social media website that he supports unsealing the affidavit but his lawyers never filed a formal motion to that effect, and instead left the effort to a coalition of media outlets that pushed to have the affidavit become public.Trump has since filed a separate motion to have a so-called special master appointed to determine what seized materials prosecutors can use as evidence in the investigation, and to force the justice department to provide a more detailed list of what was retrieved by the FBI.TopicsDonald TrumpMar-a-LagoFBIUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Trump appears to concede he illegally retained official documents

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      Trump appears to concede he illegally retained official documentsCourt motion submitted by ex-president’s lawyers argues some materials seized by FBI could be subject to executive privilege Donald Trump appeared to concede in his court filing over the seizure of materials from his Florida resort that he unlawfully retained official government documents, as the former president argued that some of the documents collected by the FBI could be subject to executive privilege.The motion submitted on Monday by the former president’s lawyers argued that a court should appoint a so-called special master to separate out and determine what materials the justice department can review as evidence due to privilege issues.“The documents seized at Mar-a-Lago … were created during his term as President. Accordingly, the documents are presumptively privileged until proven otherwise,” the filing said. “Only an evaluation by a neutral reviewer, a Special Master, can secure the sanctity of these privileged materials.”But the argument from Trump that the documents are subject to executive privilege protections suggests those documents are official records – which he is not authorized to keep and should have turned over to the National Archives at the end of the administration.‘Donald kept our secret’: Mar-a-Lago stay saved Giuliani from drink and depression, book saysRead moreThe motion, in that regard, appeared to concede that Trump violated one of the criminal statutes listed on the warrant used by the FBI to search the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort – 18 USC 2071 – concerning the unlawful removal of government records.“If he’s acknowledging that he’s in possession of documents that would have any colorable claim of executive privilege, those are by definition presidential records and belong at the National Archives,” said Asha Rangappa, a former FBI agent and former associate dean at Yale Law School.“And so it’s not clear that executive privilege would even be relevant to the particular crime he’s being investigated for and yet in this filing, he basically admits that he is in possession of them, which is what the government is trying to establish,” Rangappa said.Trump remains able to make the case that a special master should be appointed to review the seized documents, seek a more detailed receipt for what the FBI retrieved from Mar-a-Lago and restrain the justice department from further reviewing the materials until the process is complete.The reasoning, former US attorneys say, is that there could be communications seized by the FBI that are privileged, but not used in furtherance of a crime, and even if the justice department wanted to use them in its investigation, it should be precluded from doing so.Still, if Trump successfully argues the materials are protected by executive privilege, then he also successfully argues that he was in unlawful possession of official records. If he is unsuccessful, then executive privilege would not be a valid basis to seek a special master.A person directly involved in Trump’s legal defense noted – repeating parts in the filing – that the Presidential Records Act had no enforcement mechanism, even as they conceded that the justice department might pursue the privilege argument as a tacit admission.But Trump’s motion could throw up additional challenges for the former president, with additional passages in the filing laying out a months-long battle by the justice department to recover certain records in a pattern of interactions that could be construed as obstruction of justice.The search warrant for Mar-a-Lago listed obstruction for the statutes potentially violated, though it was not clear whether that was obstruction of the investigation into the very retrieval of government documents from Mar-a-Lago or for another, separate investigation.Yet the section in Trump’s motion titled “President Donald J Trump’s Voluntary Assistance” detailed the multiple steps the justice department took to initially retrieve 15 boxes in January, additional materials in June, and then 26 boxes when the FBI conducted its search.The filing discussed how Trump returned the 15 boxes to the National Archives, and then – one day after the National Archives told Trump’s lawyers that those boxes contained classified documents – “accepted service of a grand jury subpoena” for additional documents with classification markings.But despite taking custody of documents responsive to the subpoena, the justice department learned there may have been additional documents marked as classified, and issued a subpoena on 22 June demanding security camera footage of the hallway outside where the materials were being stored.That subpoena for security tapes, as well as a subsequent subpoena for CCTV footage of that area from just before the FBI search on 8 August, suggests the justice department did not think Trump was being entirely truthful or forthcoming in his interactions with the investigation.Those suspicions were well-founded: when the government retrieved materials from Mar-a-Lago on that second collection in June, Trump’s custodian of records attested they had given back documents responsive to the subpoena – only for the FBI to retrieve more boxes of classified materials.Separately, apart from late filing of the motion two weeks after the FBI search took place, the brief itself appears to be procedurally problematic.The motion was not filed in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the warrant was approved. Instead, it was filed in Fort Pierce, where the judge has no knowledge of the underlying affidavit – and could rule in such a way to reveal to Trump if he or his lawyers are suspects for obstruction.TopicsDonald TrumpMar-a-LagoFBILaw (US)US politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Trump stash retrieved from Mar-a-Lago runs to hundreds of classified files

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      Trump stash retrieved from Mar-a-Lago runs to hundreds of classified filesRecords show US government has retrieved highly sensitive materials from former president on three separate occasions Donald Trump has turned over to the government hundreds of documents marked as classified and improperly retained at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, according to a review conducted by the National Archives, the custodian of presidential records, and sources familiar with the matter.Donald Trump reportedly kept hundreds of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago – liveRead moreThe government has retrieved highly sensitive materials on three separate occasions: one set of documents facilitated by the National Archives in January, one set went to the justice department in June, and another set was seized by the FBI in a search two weeks ago.An inventory of materials in that initial transfer showed the National Archives recovered from Trump more than 100 documents marked as classified – more than 700 pages in total – and some with “Special Access Program” markings that designate the highest level of classification.The disclosures, which came in a letter published by one of Trump’s liaisons with the National Archives on Tuesday, provides for the first time an official accounting of the volume and sensitivity of the documents hoarded by the former president since the end of his administration.And it helps to explain why the justice department opened a national security investigation into the unauthorized retention of government secrets by Trump that resulted in FBI agents executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago to recover any remaining official records.The volume and sensitivity of the documents recovered by the National Archives in January also sheds light on the justice department’s urgency to make repeated visits to the pay-for-membership resort and the push to have the FBI gather the materials after months of delay.Trump has pushed back at the FBI and, on Monday, his lawyers filed a motion seeking the appointment of a so-called special master to determine what seized materials can be used in a potential prosecution on the basis of executive and other privilege, instead of justice department “filter” teams.The motion also asks for a more detailed receipt of what was seized and, as the Guardian earlier reported on Saturday, that a court restricts the justice department from reviewing any more of the seized documents until a special master – usually a retired lawyer or judge – is appointed.If the documents are determined to be covered by executive privilege, then while Trump might not be entitled to keep them – they should reside at the National Archives – Trump could have a valid argument that the government cannot use it against him in a prosecution.The argument, according to several former US attorneys, is that the justice department should not be able to use in a prosecution any documents that are privileged but are not subject to the crime-fraud exception, which concerns materials have to do with, or is in furtherance of a crime.In essence, the argument goes, there could be materials or communications seized by the FBI that are privileged but not themselves be used in furtherance of a crime – that even if the justice department would like to use in a prosecution, should be excluded from the evidence.According to reporting by the Guardian and others, shortly after opening the investigation, the justice department grew concerned that there might be additional classified materials being retained at Mar-a-Lago that they needed to collect, according to sources briefed on the matter.The justice department interviewed a number of witnesses, and in May issued a subpoena for remaining classified documents. The following month, Jay Bratt, the chief of the counterintelligence section at the agency, and three other officials went to Florida to retrieve the materials.At the June visit, one of Trump’s attorneys, Evan Corcoran sifted through boxes of documents brought from the White House and stacked in a storage area at Mar-a-Lago to identify responsive documents, and drafted a statement attesting to what they were giving over to Bratt.The statement was signed by the custodian of records. The custodian is understood to be another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, though a person close to Trump declined to confirm or deny whether she was the custodian.But the justice department then came across evidence that Trump might be holding on to additional classified documents, including in his office at Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s principal residence during the winter until mid-July, when he decamps to his New Jersey golf course.The justice department were also alarmed that after it subpoenaed the Trump Organization, which runs the Mar-a-Lago property, on 22 June for security camera footage including of the hallway directly outside the storage area, it showed people taking boxes in and out.It was not clear whether the boxes seen on the security camera tape were related to presidential or government records. The New York Times reported that the justice department is now also seeking footage from the weeks leading up to the FBI search conducted on 8 August.TopicsDonald TrumpFBIUS politicsFloridanewsReuse this content More