Trump Owes Us An Explanation of What He Intended To Do With A Trove of Secret Documents

Trump Has Been Silent on His Intent: Perhaps the Truth Subjects Him to Espionage Claims

We now know the history of the National Archives attempting for months to obtain what sources told them were Top Secret and classified documents in Trump‘s possession at Mar-aLago. Trump resisted their attempts, but finally in January 2022 he turned over to the Archives fifteen cartons of documents including Top Secret and classified documents. The Archives was concerned that Trump had additional classified and secret documents, so they contacted DOJ regarding their suspicions, and both DOJ and the FBI opened investigations into a potentially major national security breach.

DOJ repeatedly told Trump’s attorneys that he must give up possession of these classified documents since they were subject to the Presidential Records Act and were property of the United States and must be returned. But Trump continued to resist. Trump had an attorney in Baltimore, Corcoran, write a letter to the Chef of Counterintelligence at DOJ claiming that Trump had declassified all the documents though there is no written evidence of any such declassification while Trump was still president. See Exhibit A to the Search

Warrant Application Affidavit. DOJ responded that it didn’t matter if the documents were classified or not as they were all subject to the Presidential Records Act and had to be turned over to the Archives.

The Chief of Counterintelligence, Jay Bratt, personally went to Mar-a-Lago in early June 2022 and met with Trump’s lawyers and personally with Trump. He explained these records were United States property, and Trump turned over a few records to him, and Trump agreed to put a padlock on the storage room where other documents were kept. DOJ had convened a grand jury on the national security concerns, and in June 2022, DOJ had a grand jury subpoena issued for the remaining documents as there was no Trump compliance with the subpoena. Trump ‘s refusal to comply with the subpoena left DOJ no choice but to escalate their demands to turn over records to the National Archives.

Being very concerned about possible Espionage and potential disclosure of confidential intelligence sources in foreign countries, i.e. spies, DOJ applied for a search warrant covering the entire Mar-a-Lago premises to recover the entire trove of classified and national security documents. The warrant was approved and an unannounced FBI-DOJ search occurred where between 18 and 30 additional cartons of documents were obtained from the storage room, Trump’s personal office and other places at Mar-a-Lago.

It took 18 months from Trump’s departure from the White House until these documents were recovered, and the Archives and FBI are going through the cartons to isolate national security documents.

Trump has railed about the search of his home and the unannounced “raid” execution of the court approved search warrant. Now the magistrate judge has approved public release of a heavily redacted affidavit by an unnamed FBI agent supporting a determination of probable cause that crimes were committed where three criminal statutes are identified including one dealing with Espionage. The contents of the affidavit suggests that insiders provided the FBI with information about what and where documents were stored. Since the affidavit was heavily redacted, we do not know who provided the information to the FBI. The citation to the Espionage Act suggests that insiders told the FBI what Trump had done or intended to do with the documents. But we the public do not know why Trump held onto the documents and resisted demands by the Counterintelligence Chief to turn them over to the Archives. Neither Trump, his attorneys or other representatives have made any statement explaining why Trump held onto the documents and what he intended to do or had done with them.

Trump owes the public an explanation and answer to those questions about why he took and held onto these classified documents and why he kept them and what he intended to do with them. But Trump has been unusually silent about the answers to those questions. Why?

If Trump sold some documents to foreign countries or individuals or traded them to third parties for certain benefits, he would be in extremely serious trouble under the Espionage Act. So his silence may itself be devastating since Trump is usually not reluctant to speak for hours, but on these issues there is silence. What does Trump’s silence allow us to speculate about the answers? His silence, for him, is like silently taking the Fifth Amendment. Continued Trump silence can only allow us to assume the worst.

Other questions remain whether Trump had associates digitize and/or photocopy any of the national security documents, and does he have any additional such documents hidden at Trump Tower, his Bedminster golf course, his West Palm Beach golf course or his Doral-Miami golf course? Perhaps DOJ needs to seek additional search warrants or documentary subpoenas if they have evidence that additional national security documents are stored in those other places including his tax avoidance Bedminster cemetery.