Sources reveal that former President Donald Trump’s trip to Mar-a-Lago in July 2022, just weeks before the FBI searched the property for classified materials, has raised suspicions among special counsel Jack Smith’s team. According to sources familiar with the matter, the trip, which aides allegedly “kept quiet,” is being scrutinized as a potential effort to obstruct the government’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents.
The previously unreported visit, which allegedly took place from July 10-12, 2022, has been a focal point in several witness interviews. Investigators are trying to determine whether this trip was part of Trump’s broader alleged effort to withhold classified documents after receiving a subpoena demanding their return. At least one witness, who worked closely with Trump, recalled being told that Trump was there “checking on the boxes,” according to sources familiar with the witness’s statements.
Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House. Prosecutors allege that he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of classified documents and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to retrieve them. His longtime aide, Walt Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira also pleaded not guilty to related charges. Trump has denied all charges, labeling the probe a political witch hunt.
Several witnesses described the trip as highly unusual, given that Trump typically spends the summer months at his Bedminster club in New Jersey. Additionally, Trump’s living quarters at Mar-a-Lago were under construction at the time, adding to the peculiarity of the visit. Other witnesses suggested that Trump returned to check on the status of the renovations.
Just weeks before the trip, Trump allegedly had the lock on a closet in his residence changed while his attorney was in Mar-a-Lago’s basement searching for classified documents in a storage room. The FBI did not check the locked closet in Trump’s residence during their August 2022 search, which some investigators later believed should have been done.
The trip occurred as investigators were gathering evidence that Trump continued to possess classified documents. It followed a separate subpoena in late June 2022 seeking surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago that showed aides moving boxes between a storage room and Trump’s residence. The trip also followed an unplanned visit to Mar-a-Lago by Nauta, who, according to a superseding indictment, allegedly conspired with De Oliveira to attempt to delete security camera footage.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung, without providing evidence, accused prosecutors of lying and illegally leaking material. “The entire documents case was a political sham from the very beginning and it should be thrown out entirely,” Cheung said. A spokesperson for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.
At the time of Trump’s trip in July 2022, some staff expressed confusion about where Trump would stay on the property due to the ongoing renovations. “They were keeping this one quiet … nobody knew about this trip,” one witness with direct knowledge of the trip told investigators.
Trump left New Jersey on July 9, 2022, for a campaign rally in Anchorage, Alaska, and was scheduled to return to New Jersey following the event. However, plans changed, and he decided to fly to Florida instead. Investigators identified a series of unusual steps taken by Trump and his inner circle to ensure the trip stayed under the radar. Nauta, who traveled with Trump, sent text messages to close staff members indicating that the Florida visit was to be kept quiet.
“I’m pretty sure [Trump] wants minimal people around on Monday,” Nauta texted one longtime Trump employee just one day before Trump arrived in Florida. On July 8, when a Trump Organization employee reached out to Nauta to confirm rumors of a Trump visit, Nauta made clear he wanted the trip to remain “discreet,” using emojis with zippers over the mouth to convey secrecy.
Nauta also wrote a message to De Oliveira on July 7 that said “Coming down to FL soon” with shushing emojis. De Oliveira initially told investigators he had no knowledge of Trump’s trip, but the special counsel has evidence suggesting otherwise, including security camera footage showing Trump and De Oliveira together.
Smith’s interest in the trip adds to the list of instances where investigators suspect Trump was seeking to obstruct their probe. Last month, a court filing from Smith’s team revealed additional steps prosecutors believed Trump and his associates had taken to obstruct the investigation. They alleged that after Trump was informed by his attorney of a government subpoena for video footage from Mar-a-Lago, Trump instructed aides to return several boxes they had previously removed from the storage room without being caught on camera.
Two of Trump’s employees moved boxes of papers the day before an early June visit by FBI agents and a prosecutor to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve classified documents in response to a subpoena. Investigators view this timing as suspicious and indicative of possible obstruction. Trump and his aides also allegedly conducted a “dress rehearsal” for moving sensitive papers even before his office received the May 2022 subpoena.
Prosecutors have gathered evidence indicating that Trump at times kept classified documents in his office where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others. These new details suggest a greater breadth and specificity to the instances of possible obstruction found by the FBI and Justice Department than previously reported. The timeline of possible obstruction episodes stretches from events at Mar-a-Lago before the subpoena to the period after the FBI search on August 8.
Trump has denied wrongdoing, calling the investigation a politically motivated witch hunt. His spokesperson, Steven Cheung, accused prosecutors of showing “no regard for common decency or key rules that govern the legal system” and claimed that investigators have “harassed anyone and everyone who works [for], has worked [for], or supports Donald Trump.”
A spokesman for Smith declined to comment. Justice Department officials have previously stated they conducted the search only after months of unsuccessful efforts to retrieve all classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Of particular importance to investigators is evidence showing that boxes of documents were moved into a storage area on June 2, just before senior Justice Department lawyer Jay Bratt arrived at Mar-a-Lago with agents. The June 3 visit by law enforcement officials was to collect material in response to the May 2022 grand jury subpoena demanding the return of all documents with classified markings.
John Irving, a lawyer representing one of the two employees who moved the boxes, said the worker did not know what was in them and was only trying to help Trump valet Walt Nauta. The employee has cooperated with the government and did not have “any reason to think that helping to move boxes was at all significant.”
Investigators have sought to gather any evidence indicating Trump or people close to him deliberately withheld any classified papers from the government. On the evening of June 2, a lawyer for Trump contacted the Justice Department and said officials were welcome to visit Mar-a-Lago and pick up classified documents related to the subpoena. Bratt and the FBI agents arrived the following day.
Trump’s lawyers gave the officials a sealed envelope containing 38 classified documents and a signed attestation that a “diligent search” had been conducted for the documents sought by the subpoena and that all relevant documents had been turned over. When FBI agents secured a court order to search Mar-a-Lago two months later, they found more than 100 additional classified documents, some in Trump’s office and some in the storage area.
Prosecutors have gathered evidence that even before Trump’s office received the subpoena in May, he had what some officials have dubbed a “dress rehearsal” for moving government documents that he did not want to relinquish. This episode is one of several instances where investigators see possible ulterior motives in the actions of Trump and those around him.
Prosecutors have been told by more than one witness that Trump at times kept classified documents out in the open in his Florida office, where others could see them, and sometimes showed them to people, including aides and visitors. Depending on the strength of that evidence, such accounts could severely undercut claims by Trump or his lawyers that he did not know he possessed classified material.
Smith’s team has concluded the bulk of its investigative work in the documents case and believes it has uncovered a handful of distinct episodes of obstructionist conduct. One of those suspected instances of obstruction occurred after the FBI search on August 8. The Guardian previously reported that in December, Trump’s lawyers found a box of White House schedules, including some marked classified, at Mar-a-Lago.
Source: ABC News, The Washington Post
