Justice Dept.: Evidence of 'obstructive conduct' merited FBI Mar-a-Lago search

Aug. 31 (UPI) -- The Justice Department said it requested a search warrant for former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence to retrieve classified documents it had sought for months, but were unable to obtain due to repeated delays and "obstructive conduct."

The damning revelations were made in a Tuesday night filing by the Justice Department arguing against Trump's request last week for an independent review of the files seized during the unprecedented Aug. 8 search of the former president's Palm Beach, Fla., residence.

The government's lawyers state in the 36-page document that the search earlier this month produced 33 boxes, containers or items of evidence, which contained more than 100 classified records, including some that were classified at the highest levels.

Three of these documents were not located in boxes but in the desk of the former president, they said.

The lawyers added that the quantity seized is more than twice the amount that Trump's counsel produced in early June in response to a grand jury subpoena while making a sworn certification that said all documents had been handed over following "a diligent search."

The Tuesday filing details the government's exhaustive efforts to obtain the missing presidential records going as far back as last year and the lengths Trump and his counsel went to in order to not hand them over.

The Justice Department states the hunt for the documents began in 2021 when the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration sought the return of the missing documents.

Communications between NARA and Trump's legal team produced 15 boxes of documents, which following an initial review showed they contained classified national security documents that were unfoldered, intermixed with other records and improperly identified, the federal lawyers said.

NARA then made a referral to the FBI concerning the mishandling of presidential records on evidence that classified documents had been stored at Mar-a-Lago until mid-January and that some of those records "had been torn up," according to the Tuesday filing.

The FBI reviewed the returned documents following litigation to prevent it from doing so by Trump and his counsel, and uncovered 184 unique classified documents, some of which were subjected to restricted access due to national security concerns and evidence that dozens of additional boxes remained at Mar-a-Lago.

The Justice Department said it then obtained a grand jury subpoena entitling agents to seize any and all documents and containers that hold classified records.

In response to the subpoena, Trump's counsel produced 38 classified documents on June 3 while stating they were the last of the records from the White House and that all such records had been stored in a single location in Mar-a-Lago -- that being a storage room.

FBI agents and a Justice Department attorney who were on hand to retrieve the documents in June were permitted access the storage room but were prohibited by the former president's counsel from opening or looking inside any boxes, the court document states.

The lawyers continue that further investigations by the FBI uncovered evidence that the response to the subpoena by Trump and his counsel was not only "incomplete" but that a search limited to the storage room would not have uncovered all of the sought documents as the records "were likely concealed and removed" in efforts "taken to obstruct the government's investigation."

And it was against this evidence that the Justice Department applied for the search warrant, the federal lawyers said in the Tuesday document.

In asking the judge not to grant Trump's request for a third party known as a "special master" to be appointed to review the materials seized from his residence, the Justice Department argued Tuesday that some of the documents seized in the search required its attorneys and FBI counterintelligence personnel to acquire additional clearances to view them.

The Justice Department said there is also "serious doubt" that Trump's counsel performed a "diligent search" of Mar-a-Lago in response to the June grand jury subpoena.

Federal lawyers said 76 classified documents were found in the storage room after Trump's counsel said all White House documents had been turned over to the Justice Department.

They also argued that other documents had been found in the former president's office, contrary to Trump's legal team stating all presidential records were kept in the storage room.

Doubt is also cast on the extent of Trump's cooperation in the FBI's investigation as the search recovered twice as many classified documents as the former president's so-called diligent search.

Trump had asked for the independent review arguing that his constitutional rights were violated by the search and that privileged materials may have been seized.

He also asked for a more detailed receipt of what was removed from his home, for the return of items taken that do not fall under the scope of the search warrant and for injunctive relief prohibiting the government from further reviewing the seized documents.

In the document Tuesday, the Justice Department said Trump sought the special master in order to recoup some of the seized property, which he is not entitled to as presidential records are owned by the United States.

The Justice Department admitted that "certain personal effects were commingled" with the seized material and those without evidentiary value will be returned.

Concerning Trump's ask for injunctive relief, the federal lawyers argue he is not entitled to that privilege either as he does not own the presidential records and he has failed to state how he would suffer any injury absent one.

The lawyers continue that the appointment of a special master would also be fruitless as they have completed reviewing the documents.