Tonight, more classified documents.
An outside
team hired by lawyers
for former President Trump
finding two items marked classified
in one of Trump's storage lockers
in West Palm Beach.
This all comes after
the former
president was directed by a federal judge
to take a harder
look at his properties for any remaining
classified materials.
So let's go straight to senior justice
correspondent Evan Perez.
I know, Evan,
you've been speaking
to your sources tonight.
So let's just start off,
first of all,
with what more you've learned from them
about these new classified documents.
Well,
these two documents were found
in a storage unit in in Florida.
This is one of the places that
the Trump team had the items
that were removed from the White House
when he left office.
The GSA had them
transported down to Florida.
And this is one of those places
that they went.
Now, Aaron, the importance of this
is that obviously the former president
and his team got a subpoena back in June,
and they said that they had returned
everything that was marked classified.
This was what the subpoena
demanded is a grand jury subpoena.
Obviously, we know that that wasn't true
because in August,
the FBI did a search
and found a lot more classified documents
in their search.
And since then, the Justice Department
has been telling the Trump team
that they believe
that there were additional documents
and their government records
that were still missing.
And that obviously he hadn't
turned over everything.
This is why the Trump team hired a team
to do this
search of four different properties,
including Bedminster, the golf course,
Trump Tower,
this storage facility,
and another office facility.
So this is why the Trump
team did this search.
They invited the Justice Department
to at least participate
and the Justice Department declined.
So now we'll see whether,
you know,
this satisfies the judge who has overseen
all of this and has demanded that
they turn over everything.
All right, Evan, thank you very much.
So let's go now to Ryan Goodman,
the former special counsel
at the Department of Defense.
Now the coeditor in chief of the Just
Security Legal Blog
and a professor of law at NYU.
All right.
Every step of the way we've
talked about this. And now
what does this development mean?
I mean, obviously, it means Mar
a Lago is not the only place
they were classified documents
because these were in a storage
locker in West Palm Beach.
So it's a different location.
And this outside team
has found more classified documents.
So what does it actually mean?
So it doesn't necessarily mean
that it's further evidence
of the core
crimes of willful
retention of national defense information
and concealment of government,
because we already knew that
that's already
there is an avalanche
of information on that.
All right. Okay.
But it does
go to the obstruction of justice
and the disobeying of a subpoena.
And it sounds like,
according to a Washington Post
reporting, that Judge Beryl,
how is the fantastic judge in the D.C.
Circuit said to them first?
Again, a test to me
that you have fully complied
with the subpoena. They do so.
And then
they then she demands
that they do this additional search.
And lo and behold,
it turns up more documents.
And also,
according to post reporting, it's
not necessarily that they came straight
from the White House,
that they were potentially first
at an office in North Virginia
where Trump staffers were.
And then the GSA only starts
to rent out the facility
in July of 20, 21.
So that's already six months
after he's left office. Right.
So it's in North Virginia
and then it's in parts of Florida.
It's a real problem. Okay.
So when you talk
with the avalanche of information
already in terms of,
you know, well, for retention, have it.
Okay.
But now you're talking about this
that maybe, maybe I don't know
if I want to
be putting words in your mouth,
but maybe this moves
the needle even more on obstruction
So the reason for that
may be that his lawyers
reportedly did represent the Trump
no longer
had custody over any such records. Right.
Since June.
Now, obviously,
the FBI search of Mar
a Lago itself was post that point.
But does this indicate
that they directly lied?
It is evidence that they were lying.
It's not proof that they were lying.
But part of what they say
in writing to the Justice Department
is that they attest at that time
to the idea that they've done
a diligent search of all boxes
that went from the White House
to Florida. Right.
So they can't claim, oh,
we just didn't know about this. Right.
That's not an excuse.
You have to know to certify.
Exactly. Exactly.
So it's not that they could say,
oh, well,
we didn't know that they were there.
These two other documents.
It's well,
you told us that you did a diligent
search
of all the dark of all the boxes,
and obviously you didn't,
because when you got this outside firm,
they found more.
So what does this mean?
I mean, you've been very clear.
You've written
more than a hundred page documents
saying they have more
than enough to charge in the Mar
a Lago case.
So does this change anything
in terms of charges
or possible penalties?
I don't think it adds additional charges,
but it certainly adds
additional evidence.
And not only that,
but it's an aggravating factor.
These are the kinds of factors
the Justice Department
routinely looks at to determine
whether or not to indict.
It is egregious
that we're now to two years out
from his presidency,
and he still has even more documents
after first giving false statements,
second giving false statements.
That's unaffected.
That makes a difference. Right.
It was interesting
when you say,
you know, intent
may not matter to the facts
of whether you have it,
but when intent is so clear
and so in your face, it means something.
Yes. All right.
Brian Goodwin, thank you very much.