WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 05: U.S. President Donald Trump shushes journalists before signing the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act in the Rose Garden at the White House June 05, 2020 in Washington, DC. In the midst of nationwide protests against the death of George Floyd, the U.S. Labor Department announced the unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, a surprising improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic. (Image: Getty)
A lawyer for former President Donald Trump claimed Trump was no longer in possession of classified materials in a June letter, suggesting that all documents that Trump had taken with him to his Mar-a-Lago residence at the end of his presidency had been returned to the National Archives consistent with the Presidential Records Act.
The letter, which was addressed to the Justice Department, serves as an indicator that there may have been more actors than Trump in keeping the documents a secret after the FBI executed a search warrant over Mar-a-Lago last week finding 11 sets of classified documents. Some of them were labeled as the highest level of classification.
It is unclear which of Trump’s attorney’s signed the letter.
Conservative writer John Solomon, who Trump has designated to act as a liaison between himself and the National Archives, appeared on Fox News on Friday night.
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The “documents removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them,” he claimed, adding that it was an understanding of Trump’s “standing order” during his time in the White House.
“Just like every Democrat-fabricated witch hunt previously, the water of this unprecedented and unnecessary raid is being carried by a media willing to run with suggestive leaks, anonymous sources and no hard facts,” Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich added in a statement on Saturday.
In February, the National Archives called on the Justice Department to open an investigation into whether or not Trump violated the Presidential Records Act, which requires former Presidents to turn in all documents and records from their administration, after locating 15 boxes of classified records at Mar-a-Lago.
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