The FBI has started investigations into the handling of classified materials that were in the 15 boxes of material that were moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, Florida when Donald Trump left office in January 2021.
According to a Thursday night, April 7 report by the New York Times and Washington Post, the FBI probe was triggered by the discovery of ‘top secret’ information found in the boxes and it was filled with documents and momentos from Trump’s four years in office.
In January 2, the National Archives and Records Administration recovered 15 boxes from Trump’s Florida estate, and revealed the move publicly in February, saying that the contents should have been handed over to the National Archives as required by the Presidential Records Act instead of being taken by Trump.
On Thursday, April 7, House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland pointing out that the National Archives wouldn’t release the contents of the 15 boxes of materials recovered from Mar-a-Lago and accused the DOJ of ‘obstructing’ the Congressional investigation.
‘The Committee does not wish to interfere in any manner with any potential or ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice,’ Maloney wrote.
‘However, the Committee has not received any explanation as to why the Department is preventing NARA from providing information to the Committee that relates to compliance with the [Presidential Records Act], including unclassified information describing the contents of the 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago.’
The Times report then concluded that the ex-president would not likely be the target of the FBI-led investigation .