Federal prosecutors are continuing their expansive investigation of the harboring of classified documents at Trump’s southern Florida resort Mar-a-Lago after his presidency, and a new report from The Washington Post outlines evidence authorities could use to show the former president as having committed obstruction, which can be a criminal act.
The probe is entirely separate from the unfolding criminal case in New York that relates to falsified business records at the Trump Organization stemming from hush money secretly provided to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election covering an affair she purportedly had with the now former president. In the documents investigation, which is part of the work by Special Counsel Jack Smith, obstruction emerged as a potentially prosecutable issue from essentially the beginning of the probe breaking into the public conversation, which has since distinguished the case from the investigation into the circumstances of classified documents found at locations associated with Biden, a matter in which the president’s team has been straightforwardly cooperative with investigating authorities.
Citing recently gathered evidence including details available from former Trump aide Molly Michael, the Post says prosecutors have indications Trump went through relevant boxes after a subpoena from the government last year demanding a variety of protected materials potentially in his possession. That detail would, of course, suggest specific intentions to block the federal attempt to recover the documents and uncover connected details. Recent investigative progress involves “new and significant evidence that after the subpoena was delivered, Trump looked through the contents of some of the boxes of documents in his home, apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession, the people familiar with the investigation” told the Post, according to that news outlet. Also among investigative revelations are indications disputed boxes were moved.
Considering other reporting already indicated prosecutors had gathered evidence suggesting Trump lied to his lawyers, the case is significantly growing. Prosecutors recently scored a win in that area in an appeals court deciding to uphold an allowance for further questioning of Evan Corcoran, who’s been a lawyer to Trump in that dispute and may have been deceived by the former president, something investigators would be examining with an inquiry into Trump’s potential knowledge of false statements to authorities about the status of materials held there. Whether Corcoran put key statements together and received deceptive confirmation from Trump or was originally operating under false impressions the former president provided, the possibilities are serious.
