Trump Now Claiming He Only Kept Classified Folders as ‘Cool Keepsakes’
Former President Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that federal investigators planted documents in empty classification folders he just so happened to be hoarding at Mar-a-Lago. Trump, who has repeatedly claimed that he legally retained and declassified more than 300 documents found in his home, is attempting to recast the controversy in the wake of the recovery of a significantly smaller cache of documents from the home and office of President Joe Biden.
Trump claimed in a series of Truth Social posts that he kept “hundreds” of empty classification folders from meetings and briefings as a “cool keepsake.”
“Perhaps the Gestapo took some of these empty folders when they Raided Mar-a-Lago and counted them as a document, which they are not,” Trump wrote. He went on to speculate that “the Trump Hating Marxist Thugs in charge will ‘plant’ documents while they’re in possession” of the empty folders.
Alongside the more than than 300 classified and “top secret” documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago, the FBI did list 48 folders labeled “CLASSIFIED” and 42 folders labeled “return to staff secretary/military aide” that were empty in their inventory of materials seized in their August raid.
Since the raid, Trump has undertaken a protracted legal battle to prevent investigators from actually reviewing the contents of the recovered files. Trump asserted that the documents both existed and were his personal property, and that he had broad authority to secretly declassify them at his own discretion (even telepathically). However, the president’s argument that the majority of materials recovered were empty folders has only now manifested itself.
The shift was likely prompted by the discovery of roughly a dozen classified documents at the Delaware home and Penn Center office of President Biden from his time serving as vice president. In contrast to Trump’s handling of his own investigation, the Biden White House has cooperated with authorities, and indicated their belief that “a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”
Despite months of attempts by both the National Archives, and later the Department of Justice, to recover the documents from Mar-a-Lago before the raid, Trump added on Truth Social Wednesday that his lawyers were never given a chance to work with investigators.
In June 2022, months before the raid, Trump’s lawyers signed an affidavit attesting that, to the best of their knowledge, they had handed over all of the classified materials being kept at Mar-a-Lago. The DOJ would later be tipped off that there were still documents on the property and ultimately move forward with a warranted search of the property.
Both presidents’ cases are now being conducted under the supervision of special counsels appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The former president will likely continue to insist that the investigation into him is a partisan witch hunt. He gained powerful support in Congress after Republicans secured a majority in the House in November’s midterm elections. Trump-supporting representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the new chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has already signaled his intent to investigate the Department of Justice, alleging unfair scrutiny of Trump and favoritism towards Biden.