In August 2022, when executing a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, FBI agents did not access a closet or a “hidden room,” which raised questions for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team during repeated witness interviews, ABC News reported.
Trump is being sued by Smith for keeping official records after leaving the White House. According to the accusation, Trump stole secret papers after taking office and purposefully hampered efforts by the federal government to obtain them. In federal court in Florida, Trump faces charges on over thirty counts, including violations of the Espionage Act. On all counts, the former president entered a not guilty plea.
ABC News reported on Thursday night that Smith and his investigators are trying to determine whether there are still government documents at Mar-a-Lago. Investigators reportedly discovered that while an attorney for Trump was searching a storage room for classified documents, Trump had a closet’s locks changed:
As investigators would later learn, Trump allegedly had the closet’s lock changed while his attorney was in Mar-a-Lago’s basement, searching for classified documents in a storage room that he was told would have all such documents. Trump’s alleged efforts to conceal classified documents from both the FBI and his own attorney are a key part of Smith’s indictment against Trump in Florida.
Agents did not search the closet, though they were reportedly aware of it.
Moreover, sources told ABC News that agents missed what officials called a “hidden room” on the property:
Though agents searched Trump’s bedroom, a small door in one of the walls was concealed behind a large dresser and a big TV, sources said. The space behind the wall was the “hidden room,” which maintenance workers sporadically entered to access cables running through it, sources said.
ABC News said agents were not aware of the “hidden room” until after they left.
After discussions with Trump’s delegates, the National Archives made arrangements for the return of official documents to Mar-a-Lago in January 2022. Those delegates promised to keep looking around the property for more documents.
After a Trump lawyer informed the Department of Justice in June 2022 that, to the best of her knowledge, no official documents remained at the residence, the FBI executed a search warrant at the location. When the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago two months later, they discovered more records. Trump is said to have possessed more than 700 secret materials overall.
Smith is also prosecuting Trump in federal court in Washington, D.C. over the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump also faces state criminal charges in Georgia and New York. Despite this, he is the runaway favorite to win the Republican nomination.
