More details regarding the FBI search of former President Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago home showed the Justice Department had video evidence that boxes had been “relocated” or moved.
The search, which occurred in August 2022, resulted in the discovery of hundreds of classified documents, some marked “top secret” or “confidential,” within the residence, despite Trump and his legal team stating all materials had been returned to the federal government.
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Other redacted versions of the affidavit have been released since then, but the latest version offers key elements unknown until now.
Here are the takeaways from the newly unsealed portions of the affidavit released on Thursday.
The storage room
The affidavit detailed that between Jan. 12, 2021, and late August 2021, the boxes of the documents were stored in “at least two different rooms within the PREMISES,” referring to Mar-a-Lago.
“It was FPOTUS’s practice to store accumulated documents in boxes, and that continues to be his practice,” the affidavit states.
Agents discovered a large volume of boxes remaining in the storage room. The photo above shows approximately 61 of the 85-95 boxes located in the storage room.
“The door to the storage room is located approximately mid-way up the wall and is reachable by several wooden stairs,” the affidavit read.
Other items found in the storage room included merchandise such as Mar-a-Lago memorabilia, challenge coins, and garment bags, among other things.
Video evidence shows boxes being moved
The DOJ has video of Mar-a-Lago that led investigators to believe that boxes had been “relocated” or moved around. The affidavit detailed the evidence discovered in the footage.
“It cannot be seen on the video footage where the boxes were moved when they were taken from the STORAGE ROOM area, and accordingly, the current location of the boxes that were removed from the STORAGE ROOM area but not returned to it is unknown,” the affidavit said.
According to the affidavit, Trump’s “counsel 1” said that all records from the White House were stored in one location within Mar-a-Lago: the storage room. He was “not advised” there were any records in “any other private office space or other location in Mar-a-Lago.”
“The agents and DOJ COUNSEL were permitted to see the STORAGE ROOM and observed that approximately fifty [50] to fifty-five [55] boxes remained in the STORAGE ROOM. Considering that only FIFTEEN BOXES had been provided to [National Archives and Records Administration] of the approximately eighty-five to ninety-five FPOTUS BOXES that had been located in the STORAGE ROOM, it appears that approximately fifteen [15] to thirty [30] of the FPOTUS BOXES had been previously relocated elsewhere,” the affidavit said.
More plain cardboard and storage bins were present, and fewer Banker boxes were visible in the storage room.
Surveillance footage did not provide total security
A camera, identified as “South Tunnel Liquor,” provides a view of entry and exit to an anteroom that leads to the storage room where the documents were being held. The anteroom has four doors leading off of it, with one that leads directly to the storage room.
The doorway to the anteroom itself is not visible to the surveillance camera, but the footage establishing all entry and exit is “apparent,” given a person would walk behind a refrigerator and “disappear from view.”
“However, other offices can also be entered from the ANTEROOM, so it might be possible for persons to enter the STORAGE ROOM from those other offices without being visible in the surveillance footage,” the affidavit said.
Walt Nauta identified as a witness
Walt Nauta, a Trump aide who has been indicted alongside the former president, was revealed to be “Witness 5” in the affidavit.
Witness 5, who was already anonymously known to the public but is now known as Nauta, was observed on camera exiting the anteroom with boxes.
“WITNESS 5 removed approximately 64 boxes from the STORAGE ROOM area between May 21 and June 1, 2022, but only returned 25-30 boxes to the STORAGE ROOM on June 2, 2022,” the affidavit read.
Trump lawyer Christina Bobb signed a letter on June 3 attesting that all classified material in Mar-a-Lago had been returned to the government.
The search did not extend to occupied third-party rooms
The FBI requested a search of Mar-a-Lago encompassing the “’45 Office’ and all storage rooms and any other rooms or locations where boxes or records may be stored.”
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The FBI noted that Mar-a-Lago was closed for the summer but that occupied rooms would be exempt from the search.
“If at the time of the search, there are areas of the PREMISES being occupied, rented, or used by third parties, and not otherwise used or available to be used by FPOTUS and his staff, the search would not include such areas.”
