An alleged May 10 letter from the National Archives to a lawyer for the former president, Donald Trump, claimed that Trump had more than 700 pages of classified information in his possession.
John Solomon, a conservative journalist, posted the letter’s alleged text on Monday night.
The 15 boxes that the Archives removed from Mar-a-Lago in January contained the 700 pages of classified information mentioned.
Trump had given Solomon permission to review presidential records at the National Archives as one of his liaisons.
Highly classified documents, including some marked “Special Access Program,” were discovered.
The letter sheds light on the correspondence between Trump’s team and the National Archives and demonstrates that, despite the original 15 boxes being taken from Mar-a-Lago in January, access to them was ultimately delayed for months due to discussions with Trump’s lawyers.
The letter also states that the DOJ and National Archives have determined there is no basis for claiming privilege with regard to the 15 boxes of records obtained.
The letter makes it clear that in order to review the documents Trump’s representatives request from the Archives, they must possess the required level of security clearance.
When the documents were first made public, the justice department was concerned that the former president might have kept secrets that ought to have been turned over to the government after he left the White House.
Additionally, it prepared the way for the FBI to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month, during which time they discovered even more sensitive documents.
According to the report, government record keepers have been worried about the whereabouts of several documents from the Trump administration since he left the White House, including a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a note from Barack Obama to his successor.
These worries eventually developed into the national security inquiry, which prompted the FBI search.