Unsealed List of Documents Seized by FBI from Mar-a-Lago Included Empty Folders Marked SECRET or Return Staff Military Aide
Most of the Empty Folders Taken from Trump's Office
Judge Cannon unsealed the FBI List of documents and objects taken by FBI agents when they executed the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. The Unsealed List is now available through PACER. This is the first page of the List showing Box 2 of documents taken from Trump’s Office:
There are also a few other empty folders included in the other boxes, but this box contained by far the largest group of empty folders with CLASSIFIED Banners on them. So, the mystery gets deeper as now we have the question of what Trump did with the contents of the 43 empty folders marked CLASSIFIED and what he did with the contents of 28 empty folders labeled “Return to Staff Secretary/Military Aide.” Besides the empty folders in Box 2 there are 7 US Government Documents marked TOP SECRET, 15 US Government Documents marked SECRET, 2 US Government Documents marked CONFIDENTIAL as well as 69 US Government Documents/Photographs without Classification markings.
Trump has continued to say nothing about what he did or intended to do with these documents, and he has said nothing about what happened to the contents of the empty folders. There are a total of 71 empty folders in this Box 2 in Trump’s office.
I am sure that the National Security personnel are very concerned about these empty folders and what happened to the contents. Did Trump destroy them, misfile them elsewhere, sell them, barter them, send them for photocopying or digitizing or just lost these CLASSIFIED documents? It certainly suggests an extraordinary level of carelessness and negligence of a former president dealing with national security documents and ones intended to be returned to military aides.
As to the hearing before Judge Cannon, she has reserved decision and promised to soon issue a written decision on Trump’s Motion for Judicial Oversight. I reviewed the filings of the parties and the summary of the oral argument-hearing published by Lawblog. Though the Judge seems somewhat inclined to still issue an order for a special master as to both attorney-client privilege issues and executive privilege issues, the better course for her would be to say: MOTION DENIED. She could then order the parties to meet over document privilege claims and see if they can come to agreement on either or both attorney-client privilege and executive privilege claims, and she could then tell them to submit any issues on which they cannot agree for the Court’s review and determination. Appointing a Special Master seems a complete waste of time. There may not be many privilege claims that cannot be resolved, and the Judge should be capable of ruling on the specific differences between the parties, if any, after their discussions.
Since there may be privilege claims on Classified, Secret and Top Secret documents, as well as the ones designated for return to a military aide. she would need a Special Master with a very high-level security clearance, and that seems unnecessary when the Director of National Intelligence is already involved in reviewing the documents.
From a legal strategy point of view, I believe Trump’s attorneys made a major mistake in filing their Motion for Judicial Oversight as it has caused DOJ to make the strongest case against Trump and his attorneys, and it may result in criminal charges being filed against both Trump and his lawyers who were involved in the early June meetings with the Chief of Counterintelligence for DOJ. Christina Bobb, the designated document custodian, submitted a false declaration under oath to DOJ claiming in early June that they had turned over all the national security documents, Her false declaration did state, “based on the information provided to me,” so if she is indicted, she will probably claim that Trump gave her false information on which she relied. Her reliance without independent investigation was foolish, and she would be well advised to hire a personal attorney right away. The same goes for Mr. Corcoran, the other Trump attorney present at the June meeting.
You should note that many lawyers Trump hires end up having to hire their own personal counsel. As many Trump attorneys have noted, he does not pay his legal bills, and he lies to his own lawyers. That behavior has remained constant since the mid-1980s, as one of his lawyers said to me then.
So, the national security questions become deeper, and for every piece of the puzzle removed or solved several new pieces appear. Trump and his counsel should be very concerned about all the empty folders.