Liam Conner
washington – A trove of newly revealed documents related to the federal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified information sheds light on the secret grand jury investigation that preceded the indictments against him and the sealed proceedings that have taken place since he was indicted.
The documents confirmed Tuesday that federal agents suspected the former president may have tried to impede the investigation in ways not previously recognized by prosecutors and that confidentially marked documents were recovered from Trump’s Florida bedroom, months after the FBI searched its Mar-a-Lago Resort. They also revealed a once-confidential legal battle between defense lawyers who alleged investigative misconduct and a Justice Department that supported their investigation.
Special Counsel Jack Smith charged the former president with 40 federal counts tied to his alleged illegal retention of national defense information – documents with classified markings covering topics ranging from nuclear capabilities to military policy – and obstruction of the federal investigation into the treatment of confidential information. government records. Trump and his co-defendants, advisor Walt Nauta and former employee Carlos de Oliveira, pleaded not guilty, and the former president criticized the investigation.
The 2023 federal indictment against Trump alleged that he tried to impede investigators by making false representations to his lawyers. Prosecutors also said Nauta and Oliveira allegedly engaged in a botched scheme to pressure a Mar-a-Lago IT employee into deleting security camera footage.
But in a 2023 court opinion that was revealed on Tuesday, former Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., wrote that it was “likely” that Trump had gone further than allegedly misleading his lawyers. , possibly “instructing his agents to avoid the surveillance cameras that he then understood had been replaced by the government.”
Howell detailed several instances in which the former president, his lawyers and aides responded to federal requests for information about any documents with confidential markings from Trump’s time in the White House, located at his Florida resort, after his presidency ended.
In June 2022, a Washington, D.C. grand jury subpoenaed security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago, information that was later relayed to Trump over the phone by his then-attorney, Evan Corcoran.
“The government asserts that this conversation furthered a different phase of the former president’s ongoing scheme to thwart the government’s attempts to recover all documents classified as classified in response to the subpoena,” the judge wrote.
Shortly after Trump’s call with Corcoran about the subpoena, according to the judge, an unidentified witness, whose conduct matches that of Nauta, “rearranged his travel schedule, opting to fly to Florida on June 25, 2022, in Illinois’ turn with the former president as previously scheduled.”
According to the judge’s account of events, government prosecutors suspected that Nauta’s travel change was part of Trump’s “attempts to ensure that any subsequent movement of the boxes back to the warehouse could occur off camera.”
“The government has provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the June 24, 2022 phone call may have furthered the former president’s efforts to obstruct the government’s investigation,” Howell wrote.
The judge’s widely publicized 2023 opinion was a major turning point in the special counsel’s investigation into Trump’s conduct, when she took the relatively unusual step of violating attorney-client privilege by forcing Corcoran to testify before a grand jury about the his interaction with Trump. It was released publicly for the first time on Tuesday and confirmed much of what was previously reported.
Although the standard of proof in the grand jury process was much lower for prosecutors than in a jury trial, Howell wrote that because Trump could have used his lawyer to further an alleged crime, the privilege between him and Corcoran could not apply. .
At the time, CBS News reported that Howell also ruled that prosecutors could use voice memos and notes from Corcoran’s time as the former president’s lawyer, despite challenges under the same attorney-client privilege.
In February, Trump’s legal team asked the federal judge overseeing the criminal case, Aileen Cannon, to dismiss the charges and suppress the evidence, in part based on what they argued was a poor decision by Howell. That motion to dismiss was also opened on Tuesday, after Cannon ordered much of the record opened with redactions.
Cannon has not yet decided whether he will grant some of Trump’s efforts to dismiss the charge. A trial was scheduled to begin this month, but Cannon indefinitely delayed its start, citing issues related to pretrial motions and the use of confidential evidence in proceedings.
Howell’s 2023 opinion also detailed searches by Trump’s lawyers that were conducted after August 2022, when the FBI conducted its court-authorized search at Mar-a-Lago, for additional documents potentially covered by a grand jury subpoena for records with classification marks issued in May 2022.
In 2022, CBS News reported that Trump’s lawyers turned over to investigators other documents they recovered after hiring an outside firm to conduct searches of all Trump properties for any confidential documents.
Two records were discovered in November of that year in a box in a warehouse located in West Palm Beach, Florida, which was leased by the General Services Administration, according to the document.
A box with four more records with classification marks was discovered in a closet at Mar-a-Lago in mid-December 2022, Howell wrote, referencing reports included in a compliance certification filed by Trump’s post-presidency office. These documents were part of a response to the May 2022 grand jury subpoena and “contained secret level markings,” according to the court filing.
Trump’s office turned over the entire box containing the four documents to the FBI on January 5, 2023, as well as two additional documents that were supposed to have been turned over after the May 2022 subpoena: “an empty folder and another nearly empty folder marked ‘Rated Summary of the Night,'” which were found in Trump’s room at Mar-a-Lago, according to Howell’s opinion.
“Notably, no excuse is provided as to how the former president could lose classified documents found in his own room at Mar-a-Lago,” the judge wrote.
One of those lawyers, Timothy Parlatore, a former member of Trump’s defense team, later appeared for a grand jury interview to attest to the search.
This grand jury testimony was also the subject of allegations by the former president of prosecutorial misconduct. A portion of the interview was also revealed Tuesday in which a prosecutor on Smith’s team questioned Parlatore about his attorney-client privilege with his client, Trump.
“If the former president is so cooperative, why didn’t he allow you to share your conversations with the Grand Jury today?” the prosecutor asked, according to the transcript page released Tuesday.
“We are actually doing it,” Parlatore responded.
That transcript was unsealed as part of a document filed by Trump’s legal team accusing Smith’s team of involvement in prosecutorial misconduct. The former president introduced the motion in February under seal, and Cannon released it publicly on Tuesday.
At the February filing, Trump’s team alleged that the Justice Department improperly worked with the National Archives and the Biden White House to bring the charges and later “abused the grand jury process.” The allegations, made in public view, amounted to what Trump’s lawyers argued was grounds for dismissal.
Smith’s team, however, defended his conduct and rejected Trump’s allegations, writing in March“This case was investigated and prosecuted in full compliance with all applicable constitutional provisions, statutes, rules, regulations and policies.”
“There was no misconduct by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.”
The documents were unsealed as Nauta was scheduled to appear in Cannon’s courtroom on Wednesday. He alleged that the Justice Department engaged in a selective process in bringing charges against him because it chose not to cooperate in the investigation. Smith’s team objected to that claim, and Cannon is expected to hear arguments from both sides.
