The Justice Department on Tuesday night released a photograph of multiple documents labeled “TOP SECRET” laid out on a carpet at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence while claiming in a court filing that the former president intentionally “concealed” the documents in a potential effort to obstruct their federal probe into classified material at his residence. On Wednesday Trump issued a response with a new excuse for having the documents.
In a filing of his own, Trump argued on Wednesday that the National Archives should have expected to find classified material at his residence and that it should not have been cause for alarm and should not have led to the FBI search this month.
“The purported justification for the initiation of this criminal probe was the alleged discovery of sensitive information contained within the 15 boxes of Presidential records. But this ‘discovery’ was to be fully anticipated given the very nature of Presidential records. Simply put, the notion that Presidential records would contain sensitive information should have never been cause for alarm,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
As noted by CNN, however, “the Justice Department had said in court filings that the search was undertaken after the FBI developed evidence that Trump’s team had concealed materials after claiming that all classified materials had been turned over in June.”
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Trump has shifted his defenses for taking classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago residence after agents seized multiple boxes of classified items.
His varying explanations for why he did nothing wrong range from the bizarre to the asinine.
On Monday, he said that his supporters would not “stand for another scam” from the FBI. Prior to that statement, he claimed the FBI’s search was unnecessary and inappropriate because he had been “working and cooperating with the relevant government agencies” and described his home as “under siege” by FBI agents.
He has also claimed that any evidence found at his residence had been planted.
Trump’s argument then evolved and said that he had declassified the documents that were at Mar-a-Lago.
He has also claimed that the documents are protected by attorney-client and executive privileges and called on the FBI to return them on Sunday. Trump said on his social media platform that the FBI “knowingly should not have taken” these privileged documents.
