More than a year before the FBI conducted its raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, the National Archives instructed one of the former president’s attorneys to send some sensitive White House materials, including messages from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, via FedEx.
Shortly after Trump left office, officials from the National Archives began asking Trump officials to return various documents that were grabbed from the White House. At one point during the negotiations, a senior National Archives official told former Trump lawyer Scott Gast to send the letters from the North Korean leader using FedEx’s overnight service.
DOJ TO RELEASE REDACTED TRUMP MAR-A-LAGO AFFIDAVIT BEFORE NOON TODAY
“Please let me know before you mail it and then pass along the tracking code once it has been sent,” the official wrote to Gast in a June 2021 email obtained by CNN. “I need to make sure I have staff on this end to receive the package.”
Ultimately, the National Archives did not receive the letters until seven months later, when the agency picked up documents during a search in January.
However, discussions between Trump and the National Archives began to break down even further after Tom Fitton, a prominent conservative activist, began advising the former president on the situation. Fitton told Trump that returning the documents would be a mistake, claiming the law was on his side because of a 2012 court case involving his own organization that he said proved a president could do what he wants with his own records.
“I have been quite clear that President Trump is being abused here, and the Justice Department has changed its position that they had in the Clinton case,” Fitton told CNN.
The National Archives and Records Administration gathered more than 150 documents with classified markings after a search in January, according to the New York Times. The National Archives later referred the matter to the Justice Department, which then opened an investigation. The DOJ then visited Trump’s Florida residence in June and collected another batch of documents that contained sensitive national security information.
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Amid concerns about the possibility of more classified materials at the resort, Reinhart authorized the department to execute a search warrant on Aug. 5, leading officials to collect another 26 boxes of documents. It was later revealed that the former president was being investigated over obstruction of justice and whether he violated the Espionage Act, according to the warrant. A redacted version of the affidavit that justified the raid is set to be released on Friday.
Trump has denounced the DOJ for its latest seizure, arguing that he declassified the materials he took with him and denying any wrongdoing. The former president unveiled a lawsuit on Monday, seeking to block the department from reviewing the evidence that was taken from his Mar-a-Lago residence.
