Thread by @AceBearstrom

🧵DOJ has delivered a shocking view of how classified information was treated by Trump, including that highly classified documents were likely concealed and removed for the purposes of obstruction. DOJ has also released a timeline of events going back to January 2021.

#LockHimUp

🧵In responding to Trump's judge, DOJ included an image showing how the FBI found clearly marked, highly classified documents of the most sensitive kind, sitting in plain sight, spread across the floor. Other documents were recovered from the drawers of Trump’s desk.

#LockHimUp

🧵From the moment Trump reluctantly left the White House in January 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) was working to retrieve materials that Trump improperly transported to Mar-a-Lago.

#LockHimUp

🧵When NARA finally recovered 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago in January 2022, they discovered a variety of clearly-labeled classified information scattered within the boxes, including 25 documents labeled “Top Secret.”

#LockHimUp

🧵The nature of the documents recovered at that point, and the way in which they had been casually stored among old magazines, newspaper clippings, and other unrelated material, made NARA want to go straight to the FBI.

#LockHimUpNow

🧵However, they decided to work with Trump through the process of the Presidential Records Act. At every step, Trump and his attorneys were slow to respond, failed to respond, or gave responses that didn’t answer questions sent.

#LockHimUpNow

🧵Finally, the fed-up NARA team proceeded with referral to the FBI. Trump tried to assert privilege, which NARA rejected. Once the FBI reviewed the records, a criminal inquiry was swiftly opened.

#LockHimUpNow

🧵In May, a grand jury subpoena was submitted to Trump, demanding the return of all classified documents. Again, Trump’s team slowed the process, applying for an extension that gave them until June 7 to comply.

#LockHimUpNow

🧵On June 3, FBI agents and DOJ attorney visited Mar-a-Lago and were given a single envelope, containing what were supposed to be the last classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

#LockHimUpNow

🧵Trump attorney (and OAN host) Christina Bobb then signed a document stating that “a diligent search was conducted“ and no more classified material remained.

#LockHimUpNow

🧵Critically, however, Trump's counsel explicitly prohibited government personnel from opening or looking inside any of the boxes that remained in the storage room, giving no opportunity for the government to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained.

🧵But the FBI soon uncovered multiple sources of evidence that more classified documents were still at Mar-a-Lago, that government records were likely concealed and removed from the storage room, and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.

🧵When the FBI finally conducted its August 8 search, it found numerous documents outside the storage room, including classified documents inside Trump’s desk. It found over 100 new classified documents—after Trump’s attorney swore that there were no more to be found.

#LockHimUp

🧵These were classified documents of the highest level, including intelligence that could not even vaguely be construed as connected to something Trump would need “for his memoirs.”
They were extremely clearly marked, shredding any claim that they were taken accidentally.

🧵Every filing so far has made the case against Trump even more obvious, to the point that it’s simply overwhelming.

nationalmemo.com/bombshell-fbi-…

Documents at Trump's Florida home were likely concealed to obstruct an FBI probe into his potential mishandling of classified materials.
DOJ's Tuesday filing provides the most detailed account yet of the motivation for the August FBI raid.

#LockHimUpNow

nationalmemo.com/documents-like…