The Justice Department said in court filings this week that the Mar-a-Lago search resulted in the seizure of more than 100 unique classified documents. But in posts on his social media platform, Trump claimed he had declassified all the documents in his possession. “Number one, everything is declassified,” he wrote in an Aug. 12 post. “Lucky I Declassified!” he wrote in a post this Wednesday. Trump’s comments on this alleged declassification were very vague. But conservative writer John Solomon, one of the people Trump named as a spokesperson in his dealings with the National Archives Administration (NARA), was more specific on an Aug. 12 Fox appearance. Solomon read a statement, which he said was from Trump’s office, claiming that Trump “had a standing order … that the documents removed from the Oval Office and moved to the residence were deemed declassified at the time he removed them.” Facts One: Trump and his team have not provided any evidence that Trump actually conducted any kind of broad declassification of the documents that ended up at Mar-a-Lago — and, so far, his lawyers have mostly not disputed that in their court filings. records that Trump did. Eighteen former top Trump administration officials, including two former White House chiefs of staff who spoke on the record, told CNN in August that they never heard of a standing Trump declassification order while serving in the administration and now believe the claim is false. The former officials used words like “ridiculous,” “ridiculous” and “bullsh*t.” “Complete nonsense,” said one person who served as a senior White House official. “If that’s true, where is the order with his signature? If that were the case, there would have been massive pushback from the Intel community and the Department of Defense, which would almost certainly have been made known to the Intel and Armed Services committees on the Hill.” It’s important to note that the laws under which the Justice Department is now investigating potential crimes — laws regarding the willful retention of national defense information, obstruction of a federal investigation, and concealment or removal of government records — do not require documents to be classified as a crime that has committed. (A grand jury subpoena in May and search warrant in August sought documents with “classification markings,” not specific documents that are currently classified.) Also, there would be big questions about the legal validity of any broad “standing order” to automatically declassify any document Trump brought from a specific room. But first things first: Trump has shown no confirmation of the claim that he did issue such an order. The Justice Department said in a court filing this week that Trump’s representatives never claimed the documents were declassified even when they voluntarily turned over 15 boxes containing 184 unique classified documents in January (after extensive exchanges with NARA). . or when they responded to the grand jury subpoena in June when they returned another package of documents that included 38 additional unique classified documents. — CNN’s Jamie Gangel, Elizabeth Stuart and Jeremy Herb contributed to this story.
The claim: The feds could just ask for the documents
Trump argued that the probe was unnecessary because federal investigators could simply request the documents from his team, which he claimed was fully cooperative. TO DO WAS A REQUEST,” Trump posted on his social media platform on August 12. Facts One: It is not true that federal investigators could have long ago obtained government records in Trump’s possession simply by asking. Until the At the time of the investigation, the federal government had been asking Trump for more than a year to return records from his presidency, even after the Justice Department overruled the request in May and issued Trump’s team with a subpoena to return all the documents. classified, Trump’s team returned only some of those documents — and then in June, Trump lawyer Christina Bob signed a document certifying on behalf of Trump’s office that all documents had been returned, although this was not true. In other words: Trump claimed that the DOJ could have simply requested the documents “A LONG TIME AGO,” even though his team specifically and inaccurately told the department in June that there were no documents left to request. Relatedly, the department questioned how cooperative Trump’s team was. In its court filing this week, the department argued that investigators “developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Facility” at Mar-a-Lago “and that efforts were likely made to prevent government investigation.” They said of the August investigation: “That the FBI, within hours, discovered twice as many classified documents as the ‘diligent investigation’ that the former President’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to conduct calls into serious question the representations. was made in the June 3 certification and calls into question the extent of cooperation in this matter.”
The claim: Bureaucrats were to blame
A member of Trump’s team tried to blame the General Services Administration, a federal agency that provides transition office and assistance services to the outgoing president. Cash Patel, a former Trump administration official whom Trump named as another NARA spokesman, told Fox on Aug. 12 that “GSA, the Government (sic) Services Administration, has since come out and said they mistakenly packaged some boxes and took them to Mar-a-Lago. That’s not on the President. Records on the classification of that material.” Patel said that even if the material was classified, which is “highly unlikely,” the fact that GSA seized material “should have been the end” of the matter. Facts One: GSA has repeatedly rejected Patel’s claim. The agency says it had no role in deciding which documents from Trump’s outgoing transition office in Virginia would be placed in boxes or which boxes would be shipped to Mar-a-Lago — and that those decisions were made only by the Trump team. A GSA spokesman said in a statement last week that it was Trump’s team, not GSA, that packed the boxes and that it was Trump’s team, not GSA, that placed those boxes on pallets and wrapped them for shipment from the transition of Trump’s office in Virginia. GSA did contract support for the actual September 2021 shipment, but “not for the packaging of the boxes,” the spokesman said — and “GSA did not review the contents of the boxes and therefore had no knowledge of the contents prior to from the mission.” It is unclear how many of the government documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago were part of the September 2021 shipments from Virginia. It is theoretically possible that some documents were brought to Mar-a-Lago at other times and in other ways. – CNN’s Kristen Holmes contributed to this story.
The claim: The FBI may have planted evidence
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Haba, told Fox on Aug. 9, “I’m concerned that they might have planted something; you know, at this point, who knows?” The next day, Trump suggested on social media that it was dark that the FBI would not allow witnesses, such as his lawyers, to be in the rooms being searched and “see what they were doing, what they were taking or, I hope not, “planting ». Facts One: There is no evidence that the FBI planted anything at Mar-a-Lago. And it is routine, not suspicious, for investigations to be conducted without witnesses such as lawyers in the room. attorneys do not have a right to watch. The allegation of possible “planting” is impossible to conclusively disprove at this point. But once again, Trump and his allies have not shown a shred of evidence that it is true.
The claim: Obama got tens of millions of documents
In the week of the investigation, Trump turned to a familiar tactic under pressure: confusing the public by making false claims about former President Barack Obama. Trump claimed that Obama had moved tens of millions of documents to Chicago, Obama’s hometown and the site of his future library and museum. In a social media post on August 11, Trump wrote: “What happened to the 30 million pages of documents taken from the White House in Chicago by Barack Hussein Obama? He refused to return them! What happens; This act was in stark contrast to NARA. Will Obama’s ‘mansion’ on Martha’s Vineyard be raided?” In another statement on August 12, Trump claimed: “President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, many of them classified.” Facts One: Trump’s claims about Obama are completely untrue — and the National Archives and Records Administration issued an official statement making that clear.The statement explained that all Obama presidential records remain in its “exclusive legal and physical custody” NARA. that it was NARA, not Obama, who took some 30 million records to a Chicago-area NARA facility. that the records he took to the Chicago-area facility are not classified; and that the classified Obama records are in different NARA facility NARA has more information here about the Obama presidential records project. CNN’s Marshall Cohen contributed to this article.
title: “Fact Check Trump S False And Unsubstantiated Claims In Response To Fbi Investigation Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-21” author: “Ashley Alaniz”
The Justice Department said in court filings this week that the Mar-a-Lago search resulted in the seizure of more than 100 unique classified documents. But in posts on his social media platform, Trump claimed he had declassified all the documents in his possession. “Number one, everything is declassified,” he wrote in an Aug. 12 post. “Lucky I Declassified!” he wrote in a post this Wednesday. Trump’s comments on this alleged declassification were very vague. But conservative writer John Solomon, one of the people Trump named as a spokesperson in his dealings with the National Archives Administration (NARA), was more specific on an Aug. 12 Fox appearance. Solomon read a statement, which he said was from Trump’s office, claiming that Trump “had a standing order … that the documents removed from the Oval Office and moved to the residence were deemed declassified at the time he removed them.” Facts One: Trump and his team have not provided any evidence that Trump actually conducted any kind of broad declassification of the documents that ended up at Mar-a-Lago — and, so far, his lawyers have mostly not disputed that in their court filings. records that Trump did. Eighteen former top Trump administration officials, including two former White House chiefs of staff who spoke on the record, told CNN in August that they never heard of a standing Trump declassification order while serving in the administration and now believe the claim is false. The former officials used words like “ridiculous,” “ridiculous” and “bullsh*t.” “Complete nonsense,” said one person who served as a senior White House official. “If that’s true, where is the order with his signature? If that were the case, there would have been massive pushback from the Intel community and the Department of Defense, which would almost certainly have been made known to the Intel and Armed Services committees on the Hill.” It’s important to note that the laws under which the Justice Department is now investigating potential crimes — laws regarding the willful retention of national defense information, obstruction of a federal investigation, and concealment or removal of government records — do not require documents to be classified as a crime that has committed. (A grand jury subpoena in May and search warrant in August sought documents with “classification markings,” not specific documents that are currently classified.) Also, there would be big questions about the legal validity of any broad “standing order” to automatically declassify any document Trump brought from a specific room. But first things first: Trump has shown no confirmation of the claim that he did issue such an order. The Justice Department said in a court filing this week that Trump’s representatives never claimed the documents were declassified even when they voluntarily turned over 15 boxes containing 184 unique classified documents in January (after extensive exchanges with NARA). . or when they responded to the grand jury subpoena in June when they returned another package of documents that included 38 additional unique classified documents. — CNN’s Jamie Gangel, Elizabeth Stuart and Jeremy Herb contributed to this story.
The claim: The feds could just ask for the documents
Trump argued that the probe was unnecessary because federal investigators could simply request the documents from his team, which he claimed was fully cooperative. TO DO WAS A REQUEST,” Trump posted on his social media platform on August 12. Facts One: It is not true that federal investigators could have long ago obtained government records in Trump’s possession simply by asking. Until the At the time of the investigation, the federal government had been asking Trump for more than a year to return records from his presidency, even after the Justice Department overruled the request in May and issued Trump’s team with a subpoena to return all the documents. classified, Trump’s team returned only some of those documents — and then in June, Trump lawyer Christina Bob signed a document certifying on behalf of Trump’s office that all documents had been returned, although this was not true. In other words: Trump claimed that the DOJ could have simply requested the documents “A LONG TIME AGO,” even though his team specifically and inaccurately told the department in June that there were no documents left to request. Relatedly, the department questioned how cooperative Trump’s team was. In its court filing this week, the department argued that investigators “developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Facility” at Mar-a-Lago “and that efforts were likely made to prevent government investigation.” They said of the August investigation: “That the FBI, within hours, discovered twice as many classified documents as the ‘diligent investigation’ that the former President’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to conduct calls into serious question the representations. was made in the June 3 certification and calls into question the extent of cooperation in this matter.”
The claim: Bureaucrats were to blame
A member of Trump’s team tried to blame the General Services Administration, a federal agency that provides transition office and assistance services to the outgoing president. Cash Patel, a former Trump administration official whom Trump named as another NARA spokesman, told Fox on Aug. 12 that “GSA, the Government (sic) Services Administration, has since come out and said they mistakenly packaged some boxes and took them to Mar-a-Lago. That’s not on the President. Records on the classification of that material.” Patel said that even if the material was classified, which is “highly unlikely,” the fact that GSA seized material “should have been the end” of the matter. Facts One: GSA has repeatedly rejected Patel’s claim. The agency says it had no role in deciding which documents from Trump’s outgoing transition office in Virginia would be placed in boxes or which boxes would be shipped to Mar-a-Lago — and that those decisions were made only by the Trump team. A GSA spokesman said in a statement last week that it was Trump’s team, not GSA, that packed the boxes and that it was Trump’s team, not GSA, that placed those boxes on pallets and wrapped them for shipment from the transition of Trump’s office in Virginia. GSA did contract support for the actual September 2021 shipment, but “not for the packaging of the boxes,” the spokesman said — and “GSA did not review the contents of the boxes and therefore had no knowledge of the contents prior to from the mission.” It is unclear how many of the government documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago were part of the September 2021 shipments from Virginia. It is theoretically possible that some documents were brought to Mar-a-Lago at other times and in other ways. – CNN’s Kristen Holmes contributed to this story.
The claim: The FBI may have planted evidence
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Haba, told Fox on Aug. 9, “I’m concerned that they might have planted something; you know, at this point, who knows?” The next day, Trump suggested on social media that it was dark that the FBI would not allow witnesses, such as his lawyers, to be in the rooms being searched and “see what they were doing, what they were taking or, I hope not, “planting ». Facts One: There is no evidence that the FBI planted anything at Mar-a-Lago. And it is routine, not suspicious, for investigations to be conducted without witnesses such as lawyers in the room. attorneys do not have a right to watch. The allegation of possible “planting” is impossible to conclusively disprove at this point. But once again, Trump and his allies have not shown a shred of evidence that it is true.
The claim: Obama got tens of millions of documents
In the week of the investigation, Trump turned to a familiar tactic under pressure: confusing the public by making false claims about former President Barack Obama. Trump claimed that Obama had moved tens of millions of documents to Chicago, Obama’s hometown and the site of his future library and museum. In a social media post on August 11, Trump wrote: “What happened to the 30 million pages of documents taken from the White House in Chicago by Barack Hussein Obama? He refused to return them! What happens; This act was in stark contrast to NARA. Will Obama’s ‘mansion’ on Martha’s Vineyard be raided?” In another statement on August 12, Trump claimed: “President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, many of them classified.” Facts One: Trump’s claims about Obama are completely untrue — and the National Archives and Records Administration issued an official statement making that clear.The statement explained that all Obama presidential records remain in its “exclusive legal and physical custody” NARA. that it was NARA, not Obama, who took some 30 million records to a Chicago-area NARA facility. that the records he took to the Chicago-area facility are not classified; and that the classified Obama records are in different NARA facility NARA has more information here about the Obama presidential records project. CNN’s Marshall Cohen contributed to this article.
title: “Fact Check Trump S False And Unsubstantiated Claims In Response To Fbi Investigation Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-30” author: “Pamela Hines”
The Justice Department said in court filings this week that the Mar-a-Lago search resulted in the seizure of more than 100 unique classified documents. But in posts on his social media platform, Trump claimed he had declassified all the documents in his possession. “Number one, everything is declassified,” he wrote in an Aug. 12 post. “Lucky I Declassified!” he wrote in a post this Wednesday. Trump’s comments on this alleged declassification were very vague. But conservative writer John Solomon, one of the people Trump named as a spokesperson in his dealings with the National Archives Administration (NARA), was more specific on an Aug. 12 Fox appearance. Solomon read a statement, which he said was from Trump’s office, claiming that Trump “had a standing order … that the documents removed from the Oval Office and moved to the residence were deemed declassified at the time he removed them.” Facts One: Trump and his team have not provided any evidence that Trump actually conducted any kind of broad declassification of the documents that ended up at Mar-a-Lago — and, so far, his lawyers have mostly not disputed that in their court filings. records that Trump did. Eighteen former top Trump administration officials, including two former White House chiefs of staff who spoke on the record, told CNN in August that they never heard of a standing Trump declassification order while serving in the administration and now believe the claim is false. The former officials used words like “ridiculous,” “ridiculous” and “bullsh*t.” “Complete nonsense,” said one person who served as a senior White House official. “If that’s true, where is the order with his signature? If that were the case, there would have been massive pushback from the Intel community and the Department of Defense, which would almost certainly have been made known to the Intel and Armed Services committees on the Hill.” It’s important to note that the laws under which the Justice Department is now investigating potential crimes — laws regarding the willful retention of national defense information, obstruction of a federal investigation, and concealment or removal of government records — do not require documents to be classified as a crime that has committed. (A grand jury subpoena in May and search warrant in August sought documents with “classification markings,” not specific documents that are currently classified.) Also, there would be big questions about the legal validity of any broad “standing order” to automatically declassify any document Trump brought from a specific room. But first things first: Trump has shown no confirmation of the claim that he did issue such an order. The Justice Department said in a court filing this week that Trump’s representatives never claimed the documents were declassified even when they voluntarily turned over 15 boxes containing 184 unique classified documents in January (after extensive exchanges with NARA). . or when they responded to the grand jury subpoena in June when they returned another package of documents that included 38 additional unique classified documents. — CNN’s Jamie Gangel, Elizabeth Stuart and Jeremy Herb contributed to this story.
The claim: The feds could just ask for the documents
Trump argued that the probe was unnecessary because federal investigators could simply request the documents from his team, which he claimed was fully cooperative. TO DO WAS A REQUEST,” Trump posted on his social media platform on August 12. Facts One: It is not true that federal investigators could have long ago obtained government records in Trump’s possession simply by asking. Until the At the time of the investigation, the federal government had been asking Trump for more than a year to return records from his presidency, even after the Justice Department overruled the request in May and issued Trump’s team with a subpoena to return all the documents. classified, Trump’s team returned only some of those documents — and then in June, Trump lawyer Christina Bob signed a document certifying on behalf of Trump’s office that all documents had been returned, although this was not true. In other words: Trump claimed that the DOJ could have simply requested the documents “A LONG TIME AGO,” even though his team specifically and inaccurately told the department in June that there were no documents left to request. Relatedly, the department questioned how cooperative Trump’s team was. In its court filing this week, the department argued that investigators “developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Facility” at Mar-a-Lago “and that efforts were likely made to prevent government investigation.” They said of the August investigation: “That the FBI, within hours, discovered twice as many classified documents as the ‘diligent investigation’ that the former President’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to conduct calls into serious question the representations. was made in the June 3 certification and calls into question the extent of cooperation in this matter.”
The claim: Bureaucrats were to blame
A member of Trump’s team tried to blame the General Services Administration, a federal agency that provides transition office and assistance services to the outgoing president. Cash Patel, a former Trump administration official whom Trump named as another NARA spokesman, told Fox on Aug. 12 that “GSA, the Government (sic) Services Administration, has since come out and said they mistakenly packaged some boxes and took them to Mar-a-Lago. That’s not on the President. Records on the classification of that material.” Patel said that even if the material was classified, which is “highly unlikely,” the fact that GSA seized material “should have been the end” of the matter. Facts One: GSA has repeatedly rejected Patel’s claim. The agency says it had no role in deciding which documents from Trump’s outgoing transition office in Virginia would be placed in boxes or which boxes would be shipped to Mar-a-Lago — and that those decisions were made only by the Trump team. A GSA spokesman said in a statement last week that it was Trump’s team, not GSA, that packed the boxes and that it was Trump’s team, not GSA, that placed those boxes on pallets and wrapped them for shipment from the transition of Trump’s office in Virginia. GSA did contract support for the actual September 2021 shipment, but “not for the packaging of the boxes,” the spokesman said — and “GSA did not review the contents of the boxes and therefore had no knowledge of the contents prior to from the mission.” It is unclear how many of the government documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago were part of the September 2021 shipments from Virginia. It is theoretically possible that some documents were brought to Mar-a-Lago at other times and in other ways. – CNN’s Kristen Holmes contributed to this story.
The claim: The FBI may have planted evidence
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Haba, told Fox on Aug. 9, “I’m concerned that they might have planted something; you know, at this point, who knows?” The next day, Trump suggested on social media that it was dark that the FBI would not allow witnesses, such as his lawyers, to be in the rooms being searched and “see what they were doing, what they were taking or, I hope not, “planting ». Facts One: There is no evidence that the FBI planted anything at Mar-a-Lago. And it is routine, not suspicious, for investigations to be conducted without witnesses such as lawyers in the room. attorneys do not have a right to watch. The allegation of possible “planting” is impossible to conclusively disprove at this point. But once again, Trump and his allies have not shown a shred of evidence that it is true.
The claim: Obama got tens of millions of documents
In the week of the investigation, Trump turned to a familiar tactic under pressure: confusing the public by making false claims about former President Barack Obama. Trump claimed that Obama had moved tens of millions of documents to Chicago, Obama’s hometown and the site of his future library and museum. In a social media post on August 11, Trump wrote: “What happened to the 30 million pages of documents taken from the White House in Chicago by Barack Hussein Obama? He refused to return them! What happens; This act was in stark contrast to NARA. Will Obama’s ‘mansion’ on Martha’s Vineyard be raided?” In another statement on August 12, Trump claimed: “President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, many of them classified.” Facts One: Trump’s claims about Obama are completely untrue — and the National Archives and Records Administration issued an official statement making that clear.The statement explained that all Obama presidential records remain in its “exclusive legal and physical custody” NARA. that it was NARA, not Obama, who took some 30 million records to a Chicago-area NARA facility. that the records he took to the Chicago-area facility are not classified; and that the classified Obama records are in different NARA facility NARA has more information here about the Obama presidential records project. CNN’s Marshall Cohen contributed to this article.
title: “Fact Check Trump S False And Unsubstantiated Claims In Response To Fbi Investigation Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-09” author: “Mark Cramer”
The Justice Department said in court filings this week that the Mar-a-Lago search resulted in the seizure of more than 100 unique classified documents. But in posts on his social media platform, Trump claimed he had declassified all the documents in his possession. “Number one, everything is declassified,” he wrote in an Aug. 12 post. “Lucky I Declassified!” he wrote in a post this Wednesday. Trump’s comments on this alleged declassification were very vague. But conservative writer John Solomon, one of the people Trump named as a spokesperson in his dealings with the National Archives Administration (NARA), was more specific on an Aug. 12 Fox appearance. Solomon read a statement, which he said was from Trump’s office, claiming that Trump “had a standing order … that the documents removed from the Oval Office and moved to the residence were deemed declassified at the time he removed them.” Facts One: Trump and his team have not provided any evidence that Trump actually conducted any kind of broad declassification of the documents that ended up at Mar-a-Lago — and, so far, his lawyers have mostly not disputed that in their court filings. records that Trump did. Eighteen former top Trump administration officials, including two former White House chiefs of staff who spoke on the record, told CNN in August that they never heard of a standing Trump declassification order while serving in the administration and now believe the claim is false. The former officials used words like “ridiculous,” “ridiculous” and “bullsh*t.” “Complete nonsense,” said one person who served as a senior White House official. “If that’s true, where is the order with his signature? If that were the case, there would have been massive pushback from the Intel community and the Department of Defense, which would almost certainly have been made known to the Intel and Armed Services committees on the Hill.” It’s important to note that the laws under which the Justice Department is now investigating potential crimes — laws regarding the willful retention of national defense information, obstruction of a federal investigation, and concealment or removal of government records — do not require documents to be classified as a crime that has committed. (A grand jury subpoena in May and search warrant in August sought documents with “classification markings,” not specific documents that are currently classified.) Also, there would be big questions about the legal validity of any broad “standing order” to automatically declassify any document Trump brought from a specific room. But first things first: Trump has shown no confirmation of the claim that he did issue such an order. The Justice Department said in a court filing this week that Trump’s representatives never claimed the documents were declassified even when they voluntarily turned over 15 boxes containing 184 unique classified documents in January (after extensive exchanges with NARA). . or when they responded to the grand jury subpoena in June when they returned another package of documents that included 38 additional unique classified documents. — CNN’s Jamie Gangel, Elizabeth Stuart and Jeremy Herb contributed to this story.
The claim: The feds could just ask for the documents
Trump argued that the probe was unnecessary because federal investigators could simply request the documents from his team, which he claimed was fully cooperative. TO DO WAS A REQUEST,” Trump posted on his social media platform on August 12. Facts One: It is not true that federal investigators could have long ago obtained government records in Trump’s possession simply by asking. Until the At the time of the investigation, the federal government had been asking Trump for more than a year to return records from his presidency, even after the Justice Department overruled the request in May and issued Trump’s team with a subpoena to return all the documents. classified, Trump’s team returned only some of those documents — and then in June, Trump lawyer Christina Bob signed a document certifying on behalf of Trump’s office that all documents had been returned, although this was not true. In other words: Trump claimed that the DOJ could have simply requested the documents “A LONG TIME AGO,” even though his team specifically and inaccurately told the department in June that there were no documents left to request. Relatedly, the department questioned how cooperative Trump’s team was. In its court filing this week, the department argued that investigators “developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Facility” at Mar-a-Lago “and that efforts were likely made to prevent government investigation.” They said of the August investigation: “That the FBI, within hours, discovered twice as many classified documents as the ‘diligent investigation’ that the former President’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to conduct calls into serious question the representations. was made in the June 3 certification and calls into question the extent of cooperation in this matter.”
The claim: Bureaucrats were to blame
A member of Trump’s team tried to blame the General Services Administration, a federal agency that provides transition office and assistance services to the outgoing president. Cash Patel, a former Trump administration official whom Trump named as another NARA spokesman, told Fox on Aug. 12 that “GSA, the Government (sic) Services Administration, has since come out and said they mistakenly packaged some boxes and took them to Mar-a-Lago. That’s not on the President. Records on the classification of that material.” Patel said that even if the material was classified, which is “highly unlikely,” the fact that GSA seized material “should have been the end” of the matter. Facts One: GSA has repeatedly rejected Patel’s claim. The agency says it had no role in deciding which documents from Trump’s outgoing transition office in Virginia would be placed in boxes or which boxes would be shipped to Mar-a-Lago — and that those decisions were made only by the Trump team. A GSA spokesman said in a statement last week that it was Trump’s team, not GSA, that packed the boxes and that it was Trump’s team, not GSA, that placed those boxes on pallets and wrapped them for shipment from the transition of Trump’s office in Virginia. GSA did contract support for the actual September 2021 shipment, but “not for the packaging of the boxes,” the spokesman said — and “GSA did not review the contents of the boxes and therefore had no knowledge of the contents prior to from the mission.” It is unclear how many of the government documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago were part of the September 2021 shipments from Virginia. It is theoretically possible that some documents were brought to Mar-a-Lago at other times and in other ways. – CNN’s Kristen Holmes contributed to this story.
The claim: The FBI may have planted evidence
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Haba, told Fox on Aug. 9, “I’m concerned that they might have planted something; you know, at this point, who knows?” The next day, Trump suggested on social media that it was dark that the FBI would not allow witnesses, such as his lawyers, to be in the rooms being searched and “see what they were doing, what they were taking or, I hope not, “planting ». Facts One: There is no evidence that the FBI planted anything at Mar-a-Lago. And it is routine, not suspicious, for investigations to be conducted without witnesses such as lawyers in the room. attorneys do not have a right to watch. The allegation of possible “planting” is impossible to conclusively disprove at this point. But once again, Trump and his allies have not shown a shred of evidence that it is true.
The claim: Obama got tens of millions of documents
In the week of the investigation, Trump turned to a familiar tactic under pressure: confusing the public by making false claims about former President Barack Obama. Trump claimed that Obama had moved tens of millions of documents to Chicago, Obama’s hometown and the site of his future library and museum. In a social media post on August 11, Trump wrote: “What happened to the 30 million pages of documents taken from the White House in Chicago by Barack Hussein Obama? He refused to return them! What happens; This act was in stark contrast to NARA. Will Obama’s ‘mansion’ on Martha’s Vineyard be raided?” In another statement on August 12, Trump claimed: “President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, many of them classified.” Facts One: Trump’s claims about Obama are completely untrue — and the National Archives and Records Administration issued an official statement making that clear.The statement explained that all Obama presidential records remain in its “exclusive legal and physical custody” NARA. that it was NARA, not Obama, who took some 30 million records to a Chicago-area NARA facility. that the records he took to the Chicago-area facility are not classified; and that the classified Obama records are in different NARA facility NARA has more information here about the Obama presidential records project. CNN’s Marshall Cohen contributed to this article.
