From the US Department of Justice
This photo from the US Department of Justice purports to show Walt Nauta moving boxes inside former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
CNN
—
Months before Donald Trump was indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents, a federal judge ruled that the former president had “intended” to hide classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, according to newly released court documents. He said investigators have “strong evidence” pointing to the incident.
Judge Beryl Howell specifically noted the discovery of additional classified documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago several months after the FBI search of the property in summer 2022. The records included a “nearly empty” folder marked “Classified Night” found in the former president’s bedroom, and classified markings found in the Oval Office at the resort. Four other attached documents were also discovered.
“Notably, no excuse has been made as to how the former president could have overlooked the classified document found in his bedroom at Mar-a-Lago,” Howell wrote in 2023. Written in March.
The ruling was included in hundreds of pages of previously sealed filings that went public on Tuesday in the criminally classified documents case against Trump. Trump’s personal aide Walt Nauta moves boxes around his Mar-a-Lago room before Trump’s lawyers review the boxes of classified materials sought in a subpoena. It also included images.
Prosecutors allege Nauta moved the boxes as part of an alleged conspiracy to conceal classified materials from federal agents.
Nauta has been charged in that case along with Trump and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira with mishandling classified material and obstruction of justice. All three have pleaded not guilty.
Nauta’s photo, which appears to be a surveillance camera screenshot, is from June 1, 2022, and Trump’s lawyers plan to search the archives for classified documents that should be returned to the federal government. This is the one immediately before.
The lawsuit against Trump, filed last summer, is currently being heard before Judge Eileen Cannon in Fort Pierce, Florida. Cannon is an appointee of President Trump.
01:17 – Source: CNN
‘Not what Jack Smith wanted to hear’: Legal expert on judge’s move
In documents filed in federal court in South Florida, Trump’s defense team is seeking to dismiss parts of the prosecution’s case, including all of the evidence seized from Mar-a-Lago and obtained from Trump’s former lawyer, Evan Corcoran.
Mr. Trump’s team argues that the search warrant was invalid because FBI agents explained the FBI’s thinking to a magistrate judge. They are also challenging Howell’s 2023 ruling ordering Corcoran to provide testimony to a grand jury investigating the matter and turn over previously withheld documents.
Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said at the time that prosecutors had “sufficient evidence that the former president used Mr. Corcoran as a ‘front agent.'”[a]We will not allow a former president to continue to illegally keep confidential documents in boxes removed from the White House by obstructing government investigations. ”
From the US Department of Justice
This photo from the U.S. Department of Justice purports to show Walt Nauta moving boxes inside former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.
Mr. Corcoran played a key role in the investigation into classified documents, as he was the lawyer tasked with locating and turning over documents marked classified at Mr. Trump’s Florida vacation home. In a criminal case filed last year, prosecutors allege that there was a conspiracy led by Trump to remove boxes of government records from a storage room before Corcoran searched it for classified documents. ing.
Corcoran is referred to as “Person 18” in Judge Howell’s ruling, but can be identified based on what is known about the case.
01:11 – Source: CNN
Haberman: Former Trump lawyer’s memo is ‘disturbing’ to Trump
The topics on which Howell ordered Corcoran to testify include Corcoran’s phone call with Trump on June 24, 2022, the same day investigators revealed that he Surveillance footage was subpoenaed. She also ordered the production of 88 documents that had been withheld under her attorney-client privilege.
Howell detailed Trump’s actions over the months as he sought to recover classified documents removed from the White House by the federal government.
Trump “deliberately stifled staff efforts to comply” with the National Archives’ initial efforts to retrieve the documents, she wrote.
“The former president’s misdirection of NARA was clearly a rehearsal for his actions in response to the May 11, 2022, subpoena,” Howell said.
Of the 32 national security documents that President Trump is accused of criminal mishandling, 21 were found in the former president’s possession on August 8, 2022, the date of the Mar-a-Lago FBI search. It was what I was looking for.
That means the Trump campaign in this newly filed suppression motion is seeking to excise from the case those 21 documents and the charges related to them, along with hundreds of other classified records related to them, as well as parts of the lawsuit accusing Trump of obstructing justice built around Corcoran.
