Documents marked classified found in search of Trump storage unit, reports say

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A team hired to search four of former President Donald Trump’s properties for classified records has recovered at least two items with classification markings from a storage facility in Florida, according to multiple reports.

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The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the items, which were found in a storage unit in West Palm Beach, have been turned over to the FBI. The documents were found inside a sealed box, according to The New York Times.

The discovery came after Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell told Trump’s legal team to continue searching for records, the Post reported. The order prompted the team to hire an outside group to search Trump Tower in New York, Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and at least one other property, according to the newspaper.

In a statement obtained by the Times, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said that the former president and “his counsel continue to be cooperative and transparent, despite the unprecedented, illegal and unwarranted attack against President Trump and his family by the weaponized Department of Justice.”

Earlier this year the Times reported that officials served Trump with a subpoena seeking sensitive documents that authorities believed the former president had failed to turn over after leaving office. Officials with the National Archives and Records Administration said they arranged in January to get 15 boxes of documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. They later determined that the documents included classified national security information.

In August, investigators searched a storage room and Trump’s private office at Mar-a-Lago and recovered about 100 documents with classification markings, including some so sensitive they required FBI and DOJ officials to get additional clearances before reviewing them, court records show. The search was part of an investigation into possible violations of the Espionage Act, and into possible obstruction of justice and unlawful concealment or removal of government records.

The former president has denied any wrongdoing, framing the investigation as a politically motivated witch hunt.

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