Trump’s Clumsy Record-Keeping, Torn Papers Fueled Worry of Missing Documents
A new court filing adds more detail to how officials became concerned that the 15 boxes handed over by the former president in January weren’t the full picture.
Then-President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office in 2017.
Photographer: Pete Marovich/UPI/Bloomberg
It was supposed to be a bureaucratic transfer of records from a former president to the nation’s archives. But like much of Donald Trump's administration, it was anything but ordinary.
A filing from the Justice Department on the search of his Florida estate confirmed the long-standing rumors of haphazard practices.
Officials laid out in detail this week how highly classified documents were kept by the former president at Mar-a-Lago including a photo that went viral showing blurred-out, secret documents arranged on floral carpet, next to a cardboard Bankers Box with keepsakes like a framed Time magazine cover.