Thread by @costareports

(thread) I've been following up today on something @AmbJohnBolton told @CBSNews in recent days and it has led to a new understanding of a part of this story: how Trump handled defense and intelligence-related documents inside the White House, and how that led to the FBI search.

To understand how certain documents landed in certain boxes, and then ultimately at Mar-a-Lago, you have to understand how Trump digested daily briefings.

What happened in the briefings often touched on the most sensitive aspects of U.S. national security and defense, as you'd expect for the commander-in-chief. But since much of the briefings were verbal, Trump would only glance at papers most days and sometimes asked to hold them.

"Sometimes they forgot."

That line stuck with me. If they forgot to take the papers back, where did they go?

That's the question I started asking intel types and former Trump officials today. If the briefers sometimes let him keep the papers, where did they go?

Here's more Bolton. A key exchange.

So, according to Bolton, you have a president who asks intelligence briefers to at times share documents after mostly verbal briefings. They take them back most of the time, but not all the time.

Then what? Here's what I've learned...

According to multiple sources who worked in the Trump White House, Trump had a tendency to work from the residence. He got briefed in the Oval and enjoyed the dining room, but enjoyed morning and evenings working from the residence.

And he'd often take a pile of stuff.

That transit, from West Wing to the residence, is where there was often a breakdown in the tracking of documents since most days few, if any, people confronted or asked Trump about what he was carrying, the sources said.

Trump at times kept those piles at the residence. At some point, some of those misc. piles were boxed up.

More Bolton:

COSTA: Why do you think he took potentially sensitive documents back to Florida after the presidency?

BOLTON: Because he thought he could get away with it.

(end) Bolton to @CBSNews: "I was always concerned about him asking for those documents, because once he had them and we left the Oval Office, there's no telling what he did with them."