The Guardian is reporting that federal prosecutors issued an additional subpoena for Trump demanding the return of a folder marked “Classified Evening Briefing” after learning it was still present in some of the private quarters at Mar-a-Lago through information from a third-party team that conducted additional searches of Trump properties.
That team’s work came after the FBI raid in the investigation that was eventually taken over by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Per The Guardian, the going explanation to the Justice Department from the ex-president’s corner for Trump holding onto the folder was that he wanted what was basically a memento from his service in government, which is an explanation he himself has also posted publicly. Elected office isn’t a game. The folder could be useful for providing context clues to the Justice Department about the handling of other materials found in Trump’s possession, since the claims in defense of Donald hanging onto the folder suggest specific intent from the ex-president.
Also recently provided to federal authorities were a laptop and thumb drive originating with a Trump aide tied to his Save America PAC and additional classified materials found in Trump’s possession. The Trump aide previously made digital copies of some of the classified materials, ostensibly without personal knowledge of the documents’ protected status, although the idea of an aide at a Trump political organization having access to classified documents still doesn’t seem promising. Additional classified materials were found at Mar-a-Lago among presidential schedules, according to The Guardian, in a trove of materials that the aide scanned at the direction of known Trump aide Molly Michael. Apparently, it was the third-party searchers again who found the additional classified materials at Mar-a-Lago rather than the work of the Trump team more directly.
Per The Guardian in reference to the physical copies of classified materials newly given to the feds, a “person with knowledge of the search likened their sensitivity to schedules for presidential movements – for instance, presidential travel to Afghanistan – that are considered sensitive until they have taken place,” which obviously sounds like it would track with discovering the items among schedules. Later, prosecutors threatened another subpoena for what would eventually be access to the laptop used by that Trump aide unless prosecutors’ demands were otherwise met. It certainly seems in news stories coming out of Smith’s investigations that he and his team are working in very direct terms. Despite consideration for some time in Congress about whether to issue subpoenas for figures like Mike Pence and Donald Trump, Pence was already subpoenaed under Smith, and it was only in November of last year that the special counsel got his current role.
