The National Archives found more than 700 pages of classified material — including “special access program materials,” some of the most highly classified secrets in government — in 15 boxes recovered from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in January, according to correspondence between the National Archivist and his legal team.
The May 10 letter — posted late Monday on the website of John Solomon, a conservative journalist and one of Trump’s authorized liaisons to the National Archives to review papers from his presidency — showed that NARA and federal investigators had grown increasingly alarmed about potential damage to national security caused by the warehousing of these documents at Mar-a-Lago, as well as by Trump’s resistance to sharing them with the FBI.
These records included 700 pages of classified material, according to the letter, sent by National Archivist Debra Wall to Trump’s attorney, Evan Corcoran, and it doesn’t include records recovered by the Justice Department and FBI during a June meeting and the Aug. 11 search of the Mar-a-Lago premises.
Wall’s letter describes earlier correspondence in which Trump’s team objected to disclosing the contents of the 15 boxes to the FBI.
“As you are no doubt aware, NARA had ongoing communications with the former President’s representatives throughout 2021 about what appeared to be missing Presidential records, which resulted in the transfer of 15 boxes of records to NARA in January 2022,” Wall wrote. “In its initial review of materials within those boxes, NARA identified items marked as classified national security information, up to the level of Top Secret and including Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access Program materials.”
NARA aides did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter, and Corcoran could not immediately be reached.
The correspondence shows that even though NARA retrieved the 15 boxes in January, Justice Department and FBI investigators didn’t see their contents until May, after extended negotiations with Trump’s representatives. The letter also shows that in the interim, DOJ asked President Joe Biden to authorize NARA to provide the records to investigators despite an effort by Trump to claim executive privilege over the records. Wall indicated she had rejected Trump’s claim because of the significance of the documents to national security.
“NARA informed the Department of Justice about that discovery, which prompted the Department to ask the President to request that NARA provide the FBI with access to the boxes at issue so that the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community could examine them,” Wall wrote.
Biden, according to Wall, then delegated the privilege decision to her, in consultation with the Justice Department.
Wall noted that typical restrictions on access to presidential records carve out an exception for incumbent administrations. And she described an April 29 letter from DOJ’s National Security Division describing their pursuit of these documents: “There are important national security interests in the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community getting access to these materials.”
“Access to the materials is not only necessary for purposes of our ongoing criminal investigation, but the Executive Branch must also conduct an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported and take any necessary remedial steps,” according to the DOJ letter. “Accordingly, we are seeking immediate access to these materials so as to facilitate the necessary assessments that need to be conducted within the Executive Branch.”
Wall indicated that Archives had notified Trump on April 12 of the FBI’s “urgency” to review the documents but delayed transmitting them at the behest of Trump’s team.
“It has now been four weeks since we first informed you of our intent to provide the FBI access to the boxes so that it and others in the Intelligence Community can conduct their reviews,” Wall wrote. “ Notwithstanding the urgency conveyed by the Department of Justice and the reasonable extension afforded to the former President, your April 29 letter asks for additional time for you to review the materials in the boxes ‘in order to ascertain whether any specific document is subject to privilege,’ and then to consult with the former President “so that he may personally make any decision to assert a claim of constitutionally based privilege.’”
Wall said she consulted with the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel and had decided not honor that request.
“The question in this case is not a close one,” she wrote.
“The Executive Branch here is seeking access to records belonging to, and in the custody of, the Federal Government itself, not only in order to investigate whether those records were handled in an unlawful manner but also, as the National Security Division explained, to ‘conduct an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported and take any necessary remedial steps.’”
I’m an Anglican Priest in the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and I get to serve in the Parish of St Margaret of Scotland, in the beautiful city of Halifax, NS, that sits on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people. My pronouns are he/him/his. My theology is primarily Christo-centric – Jesus is at the centre and it is against Him that all values are bounced off. I believe all people are created in the image of God and are children of God and are heirs to the throne of God – no conditions – therefore every single person we meet deserves our love, and respect.
Super important to watch! This video puts the abortion cost to women in perspective and shows the arrogance of the no abortion crowd. now something I want to say not addressed in this video or any other I have seen. What no one who is talking about this is addressing is the economics of it. This woman and her husband must pay all the hospital costs for delivering a baby that won’t live. That cannot live. The equivalent of being forced to pay for a car that cannot ever run, then dispose of it at your own expense. Then because the baby was born, they must hold some funeral or burial ceremony right? Cannot just toss it in the toxic waste bin, so someone must bear all those costs. Then think of the damn emotional toll. Remember this woman and her husband wanted to have this child, they were trying to have a healthy kid. If it was me I wouldn’t ever try again after this. Tie the tubes and snip the testis. Hugs
A Louisiana hospital is refusing a women’s request to abort a fetus without a skull. This is the latest horrific consequence of the draconian laws passed by Republicans in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Texas Paul reacts.
Jessica Tarlov, a co-host on Fox ‘News’ channel’s ‘The Five,’ stunned her colleagues when she pushed back on their lies and delivered the truth about the transformative agenda of President Biden and the Democrats. Texas Paul reacts.
Facebook served warrant and forced to turn over chat messages between mother and daughter in Nebraska abortion case. So much for the right to privacy when it comes to pregnant people, am I right? Make no mistake, the “Party of Freedom” only wants freedom for white cisgender christian men with wealth. The modern conservative right is nothing but grotesque, power hungry, cowards who are afraid of everyone and everything that doesn’t believe and look exactly like they do. They make laws to oppress everyone while protecting themselves, which is exactly what Dobbs v Jackson is about – protecting white men in the workforce because these mediocre assholes can’t succeed without a boot on someone’s neck.
the marked difference between a progressive and a conservative
Grace Christian School in Valrico, FL has asked all LBGTQ students to leave immediately. This is probably not what Jesus would do. pic.twitter.com/qBg5k7WVGb
The moon is in the North Pole, where the day lasts 24 hours and the moon appears in only 30 seconds completely and blocks the sun for only 5 seconds and then disappears, a breathtaking view. pic.twitter.com/kJjkEzAeaq
@mrs.frazzled/TikTok; James Devaney/GC Images/Getty Images
After the Justice Department (DoJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued and acted on a search warrant at former Republican President Donald Trump’s Florida home and paid membership resort Mar-a-Lago, much has been written about what the federal law enforcement agency was looking for and what Trump might have done.
But perhaps the DoJ just isn’t using the right approach with Trump. California Kindergarten teacher Arielle Fodor—Mrs.Frazzled on TikTok—may have cracked the code.
Speak to Trump about the FBI raid like he was a 5-year-old.
The video went viral, racking up over 845k views on TikTok alone before jumping to other social media platforms.
When John Bolton says on Newsmax that we are safer under Biden then we would have been under Trump, the host loses his mind and they have an epic battle. I know people hate Bolton, but this is fantastic – he debunks every fake narrative they created about his foreign policy. pic.twitter.com/GdSr6pcfdv
Conservatives get offended when "obscene language" is used, like when Beto O'Rourke dropped an F bomb on a heckler while he discussed the Uvalde shooting.
Scottie's Playtime 