DOJ Releases Photo of ‘Top Secret’ Documents Seized From Trump’s Home

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday released a photo of classified documents it retrieved from Donald Trump’s Florida home earlier this month, the latest disclosure in its investigation into the former president’s removal of secret government records from the White House following his 2020 election loss.

The heavily redacted photo, which shows documents clearly marked “secret” and “top secret” sprawled out on the carpet, accompanied a new 36-page filing in which the Department of Justice said it compiled evidence that “efforts were likely taken to obstruct” its investigation, a finding that puts members of Trump’s team and potentially the former president himself in even more legal jeopardy.

The filing notes that the FBI “developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed” from a Mar-a-Lago storage room that Trump’s team claimed was the location of all the documents removed from the White House.

“Against that backdrop, and relying on the probable cause that the investigation had developed at that time, on August 5, 2022,” the filing reads, “the government applied to Magistrate Judge Reinhart for a search and seizure warrant, which cited three statutes: 18 U.S.C. § 793 (Willful retention of national defense information), 18 U.S.C. § 2071 (Concealment or removal of government records), and 18 U.S.C. § 1519 (Obstruction of federal investigation).”

Federal agents ultimately removed more than 30 boxes of material from the White House during its recent raid of Mar-a-Lago, which set off a firestorm of reaction from the former president’s far-right base and his loyalists in Congress.

The FBI’s stated finding that documents were “concealed and removed” from the Mar-a-Lago storage room conflicts with a sworn certification provided to the Justice Department by one of Trump’s attorneys, believed to be Christina Bobb.

Originally published at Commondreams.org.