Donald Trump held over 300 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago residence: Report

Former US President Donald Trump reportedly kept more than 300 documents with classified markings at his Mar-a-Lago house in Florida. According to a New York Times (NYT) report, Trump submitted around 150 classified documents to the National Archives and Records Administration in January 2022, whereas, the remaining were either given to the US Department of Justice by his officials in June or were seized during the recent raid conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The federal agents raided the Republican leader's Florida house on August 8, amid reports that he was illegally holding the White House's classified documents at his house. 

According to reports, the precise nature of the sensitive material that Trump took from the White House after demitting the office in January 2021 is yet not clear. The 15 boxes that he handed over to the archives in January this year included documents related to the National Security Agency (NSA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the FBI, covering a range of subjects of national security interest, the NYT reported citing sources familiar to the matter. 

FBI's recent raid recovered a total of 26 boxes from Trump's house

As some of the documents in the boxes were extremely sensitive, archives staff members referred the case to the Justice Department, which within months had set up a grand jury for the investigation. Meanwhile, the FBI's recent raid recovered a total of 26 boxes including 11 sets of material labelled as classified and also a large number of supplementary documents. The investigation by the Justice Department is still underway, as the officials are yet not sure whether they have recovered all the White House documents from Trump's house. 

Earlier in January, the National Archives, which is in charge of gathering presidential material, recovered the items which sparked a months-long Justice Department investigation into whether Trump was unlawfully holding secret materials at his house in Florida. According to the Presidential Records Act, which was adopted in 1978, White House records must be preserved as the US government's property. Former FBI officials claimed that possession of the government's records by Trump was a "potential crime" which led to the raid at his house. 

Image: AP