The FBI searched the Florida resort of former president Trump and found more sensitive documents in his bedroom at Mar-a-Lago, according to court docs filed Tuesday.
Trump is requesting that a court dismiss his indictment on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct. As part of this request, several papers relevant to the case made by prosecutors to a grand jury in Washington, D.C., are being made public for the first time.
Judge Beryl Howell’s ruling from that case shows that Trump was once again subpoenaed in January 2023 and that his lawyers subsequently sent over a largely empty folder marked “Classified Evening Summary.'”
She was shocked that Trump, even after the search of his Florida residence in August 2022, could have been oblivious to the existence of secret documents there.
The recently revealed ruling comes in response to special counsel Jack Smith’s efforts to compel more evidence from Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran and to get 88 pages of personal papers, which Corcoran claimed were shielded by attorney-client privilege.
Howell noted that the former president’s bedroom at Mar-a-Lago had classified papers, but he offered no explanation for how he could have missed them.
This is just one more astounding element in a case that shocked prosecutors when secret documents were discovered in unexpected places, such as a ballroom stage and a restroom.
The Department of Justice accused Trump of 41 crimes in the case, including having surveillance tape destroyed, in a superseding indictment.
What Howell calls a representation that the former president “knew to be wrong” is really Trump’s encouragement of Corcoran to certify to the government that all documents had been returned.
However, Trump’s legal team included the decision as an exhibit, and it seems to support Smith’s stance by demonstrating how Howell agreed with prosecutors that the ex-president’s actions fulfilled the requirements of each statute he was subsequently accused of breaking.
Judge Aileen Cannon is now considering this petition, along with many others, and is requesting that she dismiss the case.
Meanwhile, she refused to establish a new trial date earlier this month, citing her need for more time to consider each of the former president’s arguments. Therefore, she has indefinitely postponed Trump’s trial.
