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:
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. 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.
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 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."
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
