January 2022
It was later revealed that in mid-January, the National Archives
had succeeded in retrieving 15 boxes of materials taken from the White House at the end of Mr. Trump’s term and stored at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club and residence in Palm Beach, Fla. The agency said it had negotiated with Mr. Trump’s lawyers throughout 2021 to have the materials returned.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/...on=CompanionColumn&contentCollection=Trending
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/...on=CompanionColumn&contentCollection=Trending
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/...on=CompanionColumn&contentCollection=Trending
The boxes included a number of personal letters and gifts Mr. Trump had received, including correspondence with Kim Jong-un and a congratulatory letter that former President Barack Obama left for Mr. Trump.
“These records should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump administration in January 2021,” the National Archives said in a statement
February 2022
Sometime after receiving the boxes, the National Archives discovered what appeared to be classified information within the documents Mr. Trump had held onto and flagged the incident to the Justice Department for guidance. The agency publicly confirmed on Feb. 18 that it had found documents marked as containing “classified national security information” among the boxes.
The finding raised concern among lawmakers, who started investigating through the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
In a letter on Feb. 24, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, the committee’s chairwoman, requested a detailed accounting from the National Archives of the contents of the boxes found at Mar-a-Lago, including anything that Mr. Trump had shredded or tried to destroy.
“I am deeply concerned that former President Trump may have violated the law through his intentional efforts to remove and destroy records that belong to the American people,” she wrote.
.
April 2022
In response to the National Archives’ referral to the Justice Department in February, federal authorities apparently began their own investigation into how classified information ended up at Mr. Trump’s Florida home.
In April, the Justice Department instructed the National Archives not to share any further details about the materials found at Mar-a-Lago with the House Oversight Committee, suggesting that the F.B.I. was in the preliminary stages of a criminal investigation.
May 2022
In early May, the Justice Department issued a subpoena to the National Archives to obtain the classified documents found within the boxes recovered from Mar-a-Lago. The authorities also requested interviews with several White House officials present in the final days before Mr. Trump left the White House. These steps appeared to confirm that the Justice Department had begun a grand jury investigation into whether Mr. Trump had mishandled the sensitive documents, and that its investigative efforts were picking up steam.
At some point in the spring, a small group of federal agents, including at least one involved in counterintelligence, also made an unusual visit to Mar-a-Lago to seek out more information about classified documents that might have been stored there. Mr. Trump and at least one of his lawyers were said to have been present for part of the meeting. It was not immediately clear when the visit took place.
August 2022
On Monday, F.B.I. agents descended on Mr. Trump’s home, breaking open a safe as they conducted the search in what seemed to be the latest attempt to obtain information related to his handling of classified materials.
In an interview on “Real America’s Voice” on Tuesday, Christina Bobb, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, appeared to confirm that agents were looking for presidential records, some of which may have contained classified information.
On Wednesday, during a deposition in New York, Mr. Trump refused to answer questions from the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, citing the Fifth Amendment. Since March 2019, Ms. James has been investigating whether the former president fraudulently inflated the value of his assets to secure loans and other benefits.
Shortly after the questioning began, Mr. Trump’s office released a statement that he would invoke his right against self-incrimination and cast the inquiry as part of a grander conspiracy against him, linking it to the F.B.I. search at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
On Thursday, one of Mr. Trump’s representatives to the National Archives disclosed that the former president had been subpoenaed this spring to return the classified documents months before the F.B.I. searched his Florida residence, suggesting that the Justice Department had tried other methods to account for the materials.
After the disclosure of the subpoena, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland moved to make public the warrant and supporting documents used in the search and said he personally approved the decision after the “less intrusive” attempts had failed.
Late on Thursday night, Mr. Trump said he would not oppose the motion to release the warrant and an inventory of items retrieved in the search on Monday. But his lawyers have until not officially responded to the Justice Department; they have until 3 p.m. Eastern on Friday to formally state whether Mr. Trump has any objection.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that a list of documents removed from Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence include materials marked as top secret and meant to be viewed only in secure government facilities.
