Unsealed court records reveal Trump lawyers found classified docs in bedroom months after Mar-a-Lago search

PALM BEACH, FLORIDA: Four months after the FBI conducted a search at his Mar-a-Lago estate, it has come to light that four documents designated as "classified" were found in former President Donald Trump's personal bedroom.

This disclosure was one of several instances highlighted by US District Judge Beryl Howell in a recently unsealed opinion from 2023, as reported by Politico.

The opinion concluded that the prosecutors had presented compelling evidence indicating that Trump had deliberately stored national security documents in his residence and tried to hide them when the Justice Department sought to retrieve them. 

Judge Beryl Howell questioned how Donald Trump could have missed classified-marked documents found in his own bedroom 

In her 87-page opinion, Judge Howell stated that the possibility of Trump committing crimes justified granting Special Counsel Jack Smith permission to question the former president's lawyer Evan Corcoran on matters typically protected by attorney-client privilege.

Judge Howell noted that the prosecution had shown that Trump was aware that Corcoran had been entrusted, in June 2022, with notifying the government that all confidential documents had been returned—"a representation that the former president... knew to be wrong."

Several other secret documents were discovered on the Mar-a-Lago property after an FBI investigation in August 2022, but as Howell points out, there were at least two more rounds of classified materials discovered after additional searches.

Howell highlighted her surprise at the discovery of four documents with classification markings in Trump's private quarters, months after they were subpoenaed by prosecutors and following an exhaustive FBI search.

Judge Howell, an Obama appointee, mentioned, "Notably, no excuse is provided as to how the former president could miss the classified-marked documents found in his own bedroom at Mar-a-Lago."

In a footnote, she observed that another adviser to Trump, affiliated with his Save America PAC had admitted to scanning the contents of the box containing the classified materials in 2021 and saving them on a personal laptop provided by the PAC.

The box containing the four records was provided to the FBI by Trump's office in January 2023. 

Howell's opinion and a substantial set of previously undisclosed grand jury-related documents from the investigation into Donald Trump for withholding extensive classified documents after leaving office in 2021, including some of the nation's most sensitive military secrets, were unsealed.

US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee based in South Florida, released the set of documents on Tuesday, May 21, following extensive negotiations with Smith's team and Trump's lawyers over redactions.

Notably, despite its strong criticism of his behavior, Trump used Howell's opinion to argue in favor of a motion to dismiss the case against him for "prosecutorial misconduct."

This filing, also newly unsealed on Tuesday, points out that Howell, in a footnote, reprimanded prosecutor Julie Edelstein for pressuring another Trump attorney, Tim Parlatore, to disclose attorney-client privileged information, and for questioning whether Trump's refusal to waive the privilege indicated his obstinacy.

"The former president is correct that '[i]f a witness exercises some right or privilege, it is generally agreed that it is improper to suggest that adverse inferences should be drawn,'" wrote Judge Howell, referring to texts on standard grand jury practices.

Judge Cannon is expected to preside over a hearing in the case on Wednesday. Still, she recently indicated that the trial for Trump's charges is unlikely to commence before late summer, and possibly even later.

Judge Howell, who oversaw the initial grand jury proceedings as a chief judge that resulted in Trump's criminal charges related to classified documents, stated in her opinion that one of Trump's close aides, Walt Nauta, was clearly being deceptive during his FBI interview about his involvement in moving boxes later found to contain classified materials.

Nauta was subsequently charged alongside Trump for attempting to impede government officials from retrieving the classified documents.

Furthermore, Howell provided a detailed account of the disputes between Smith's team and Trump regarding searches of his other properties and whether his lawyers had been trying to hinder the prosecutors' efforts to enforce their subpoena for the remaining classified records at the former president's home.

Besides allowing Smith’s team to question Corcoran, she agreed that 88 documents the Trump lawyer had been attempting to withhold under attorney-client privilege needed to be disclosed as they were “sufficiently ‘in furtherance’ of the former president’s criminal scheme.”

Internet fumes as it's revealed attorneys found classified documents in Donald Trump’s bedroom four months after Mar-a-Lago search

One remarked, "He’s still selling them !!" and another noted, "He’s a habitual crook."

A person wrote, "We all know he sold some if not most of them." "MORE!?! This wasn't a whoppsie, forgot to include them when the FBI raided my house a few months ago. These were just in the bedroom AND how many more are there?!?!?!?" expressed a disgruntled individual. 

One more claimed, "Yup. We've known this. He still has some. He already Sold some. #TraitorsSupportTraitorTrump," and another person added, "He's a thief. That's what thieves do. He probably shoplifts too."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.