NARA "continued to make requests" for records it believed to be missing for several months, according to the affidavit. Around late December 2021, a Trump representative informed the agency that an additional 12 boxes of records that should have been turned over had been found at the former president's Mar-a-Lago club and residence and were ready to be retrieved.
Timeline: Key dates in the investigation into Trump's Mar-a-Lago docs
The search of former President Donald Trump' s Mar-a-Lago club for classified documents and other government records may have come as a surprise to the public. But new legal filings show the investigation that triggered the unprecedented action was months in the making. The documents make clear that Trump had ample opportunity to return the material the government requested —- and then subpoenaed — and reveal the sheer quantity of highly sensitive documents he was keeping at the club.
A timeline of notable developments:
Jan. 20, 2021
Then-President Donald Trump left the White House for Florida ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. According to the General Services Administration, members of Trump's transition team were responsible for packing items into boxes, putting boxes on pallets and shrink-wrapping those pallets so they could be transported.
Prior to shipping, GSA said it "required the outgoing transition team to certify in writing that the items being shipped were required to wind down the Office of the Former President and would be utilized as the Office transitioned to its new location in Florida."
GSA did not examine the contents of the boxes and "had no knowledge of the contents prior to shipping," according to an agency spokesperson. GSA was also not responsible for the former president's personal belongings, which were transported by a private moving company.
Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are considered federal property — not private — and are supposed to be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration. Multiple federal laws govern the handling of classified and sensitive government documents, including statutes that make it a crime to remove such material and retain it at an unauthorized location.
May 2021
After NARA realized that documents from Trump's presidency seemed to be missing from the material that it received as he left office, the agency requested the records from Trump on or about May 6, 2021, according to a heavily redacted affidavit made public Aug. 26, 2022.
December 2021
Jan. 18, 2022
NARA received 15 boxes of presidential records that had been stored at Mar-a-Lago — 14 of which, it would later be revealed, contained classified documents. The documents were found mixed in with an assortment of other material, including newspapers, magazines, photos and personal correspondence.
In total, the boxes were found to contain 184 documents with classified markings, including 67 marked confidential, 92 secret and 25 top secret. Agents who inspected the boxes also found special markings suggesting they included information from highly sensitive human sources or the collection of electronic "signals" authorized by a court under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Feb. 9, 2022
The special agent in charge of NARA's Office of the Inspector General sent a referral to the Justice Department via email after a preliminary review of the boxes revealed numerous classified documents.
"Of most significant concern," they wrote, according to a heavily-redacted affidavit released last week, "was that highly classified records were unfoldered, intermixed with other records, and otherwise unproperly (sic) identified."
After an initial review of the NARA referral, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the matter.
Feb. 18, 2022
Trump's Save America PAC released a statement insisting the return of the documents had been as "routine" and "no big deal."
Trump insisted the "papers were given easily and without conflict and on a very friendly basis," and added, "It was a great honor to work with NARA to help formally preserve the Trump Legacy."
Feb. 19, 2022
NARA revealed in a letter to a congressional oversight committee that classified information was found in the 15 recovered boxes and confirmed the Justice Department referral.
Trump's Save America PAC released another statement insisting, "The National Archives did not 'find' anything," but "were given, upon request, Presidential Records in an ordinary and routine process to ensure the preservation of my legacy and in accordance with the Presidential Records Act."
April 12, 2022
NARA informed Trump of its intent to provide the documents to the FBI, at the request of the Justice Department. A Trump representative requested an extension until April 29.
April 29, 2022
The Justice Department sent a letter to Trump's lawyers seeking immediate access to the material, citing "important national security interest."
"Access to the materials is not only necessary for purposes of our ongoing criminal investigation, but the Executive Branch must also conduct an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported and take any necessary remedial steps," the department wrote.
Trump's lawyers requested an additional extension.
May 10, 2022
NARA informed Trump's lawyers that it would provide the FBI access to the records as soon as May 12.
May 11, 2022
The Justice Department issued a subpoena for additional records.
June 3, 2022
Three FBI agents and a DOJ attorney went to Mar-a-Lago to collect additional material offered by a Trump attorney in response to the subpoena. They were given "a single Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape, containing the documents," according to an Aug. 30 filing.
That envelope, it was later found, contained 38 documents with classification markings, including five documents marked confidential, 16 marked secret and 17 marked top secret.
During the visit, the filing said, "Counsel for the former President offered no explanation as to why boxes of government records, including 38 documents with classification markings, remained at the Premises nearly five months after the production of the Fifteen Boxes and nearly one-and-a-half years after the end of the Administration."
Trump's lawyers also told investigators that all of the records that had come from the White House were stored in one location — a Mar-a-Lago storage room. Investigators were permitted to visit the room, but were "explicitly prohibited" from opening or looking inside any of the boxes, they reported, "giving no opportunity for the government to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained."
The Justice Department was also given a signed certification letter stating that a "diligent search" had been completed and that no documents remained.
June 8, 2022
The Justice Department sent a letter to Trump's lawyer requesting that the storage room be secured, and that "all of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago (along with any other items in that room) be preserved in that room in their current condition until farther notice."
Aug. 5, 2022
The Justice Department filed an application for a search and seizure warrant of Mar-a-Lago, citing "probable cause" that additional presidential records and records containing classified information remained in various parts of the club.
"There is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction" would be found, read the heavily-redacted copy of the affidavit laying out the FBI's rationale for the search.
The Justice Department also revealed in the Aug. 30 filing that it had found evidence "that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government's investigation."
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart in South Florida approved the application that same day.
Aug. 8, 2022
The FBI executed the search at Mar-a-Lago, seizing 36 items of evidence, including boxes and containers holding more than 100 classified records, an order pardoning Trump ally Roger Stone and information about the "President of France."
Agents found classified documents both in the storage room as well as in the former president's office — including three classified documents found not in boxes, but in office desks.
They included items so sensitive that, "In some instances, even the FBI counterintelligence personnel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents."
"That the FBI, in a matter of hours, recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the 'diligent search' that the former President's counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter," the Justice Department wrote.
Trump and his allies, meanwhile, cast the search as a weaponization of the criminal justice system aimed at damaging him politically as he prepares for another potential White House run.
Aug. 12, 2022
Judge Reinhart unsealed the warrant that authorized the FBI to search Mar-a-Lago, which details that federal agents were investigating potential violations of three federal laws, including the Espionage Act.
Aug. 30, 2022
The Justice Department responded to Trump's request for a special master in a filing that included new details about the investigation, including an assertion that classified documents were "likely concealed and removed" from a storage room at Mar-a-Lago as part of an effort to obstruct the probe.
It included a photograph of some the material found at the club, including cover pages of paperclip-bound documents — some marked as "TOP SECRET//SCI" with bright yellow borders and one marked as "SECRET//SCI" with a rust-colored border — splayed out on a carpet at Mar-a-Lago.
"Terrible the way the FBI, during the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, threw documents haphazardly all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me that did it!), and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see," Trump responded. "Thought they wanted them kept Secret?"
FBI agents who searched Mar-a-Lago found empty folders marked with classified banners, according to a more detailed inventory made public by the DOJ today.
New legal filings show the investigation that triggered the FBI's search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate was months in the making. Here's the timeline.
Here's what you need to know about Raymond Dearie and the role he'll play in the investigation.
The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to overturn a judge's appointment of an independent arbiter to review documents seized during a search of former President Trump's Florida estate.
For years, problems with classified materials have been a shortcut to controversy in Washington. Hillary Clinton got in trouble for her use of a private email server. Donald Trump risked criminal charges for refusing to return top secret records. And now President Joe Biden faces a political headache over documents with classified markings found at an old office.
Virtually everything was going right for President Joe Biden to open the year. Biden's approval ratings were ticking up. Inflation was slowing. And Republicans were at war with themselves after a disappointing midterm season. But Biden’s rosy political outlook veered into uncertainty after the Justice Department appointed a special counsel to investigate the Democratic president’s handling of classified documents.
Biden seemingly ignored or forgot about a cardinal rule in politics: Check your closet for skeletons before you complain about someone else's.
It's President Joe Biden's refuge from Washington — a place that's part home office, part Sunday family dinner venue and a makeshift campaign studio during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware, is coming under fresh scrutiny as a repository of classified material.
When Hillary Clinton was running for president, her campaign wanted a gentler way to talk about the criminal investigation into her private email server, so they called it a “security review.” Now, President Joe Biden's team is using similar language when talking about the discovery of classified documents on his watch. It's a rhetorical dance done for years by political figures.
The FBI searched President Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday and located six documents containing classification markings and also took possession of some of his notes, the president's lawyer said Saturday.
President Joe Biden aims to show that, unlike Donald Trump, he never intended to retain classified materials — a key distinction that experts say diminishes the risks of criminal liability.
The mishandling of classified documents is not a problem unique to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. At least three presidents, a vice president, a secretary of state and an attorney general have all been tripped up.
WASHINGTON — Democrats responded with aggrieved fury when former President Donald Trump was found in possession of classified documents that should have been turned over to the government when he left office. Then disclosures that President Joe Biden also mishandled secret papers set loose a Republican "well, what about” roar.
The decision by Facebook's parent company to soon reinstate Donald Trump's account comes at a critical moment for the former president as he tries to build campaign momentum for a return to the White House.
On a winter's day in 1984, a briefcase stuffed with classified government documents showed up in a building in Pittsburgh, borne by someone who most certainly wasn't supposed to have them.
Ronna McDaniel has become the longest serving leader of the Republican National Committee since the Civil War. But now, she must confront a modern-day civil war within the GOP.
A new poll shows that more U.S. adults disapprove than approve of the way President Joe Biden has handled the discovery of classified documents at his home and former office. Yet that seems to have had little impact on Biden's overall approval rating.
Some of President Joe Biden's handwritten musings over his decades in politics are now a part of a special counsel's investigation into the handling of classified documents.
As the Manhattan district attorney’s office again ramps up its investigation of Donald Trump, a new book by a former prosecutor details just how close the former president came to getting indicted.
No fewer than a half dozen Republicans eyeing the White House have begun actively courting top political operatives in states like New Hampshire and Iowa.
The Biden administration has offered to brief congressional leaders on its investigation into the classified documents found in the private possession of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
There are plenty of similarities — but also a major difference — among the classified-records situations of President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and Trump's vice president, Mike Pence.
President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, are preparing for a possible rematch in 2024. But a new poll finds a notable lack of enthusiasm within the parties for either man as his party's leader.
The FBI finds itself in a challenging moment as it conducts simultaneous investigations involving classified documents held by former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.
Former President Donald Trump will release a new book next month that features letters from celebrities and politicians written to him through the years.
More than six years after Donald Trump's lawyer paid off a porn star, New York prosecutors appear to be close to deciding whether the former president should face charges in connection with that payoff.
From almost the moment he first rode down the escalator in Trump Tower, a question has loomed over the Republican Party: Is this the moment to break from Donald Trump? Elected Republicans have wavered at times. But after almost eight years of near-constant scandal, Republicans have rallied behind Trump over and over again.
For 40 years, former President Donald Trump has navigated a flurry of legal investigations without ever facing criminal charges. That record may soon come to an end.
Former President Donald Trump's workers at Mar-a-Lago reportedly moved boxes of classified documents just a day before federal prosecutors came to collect papers pursuant to a subpoena.
Donald Trump says he’s been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, igniting a federal prosecution that is arguably the most perilous of multiple legal threats against the former president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
Barely 400,000 votes have been cast in two rural Republican primaries over the span of eight days. But both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are behaving like their parties' nominees already.
