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NEW YORK (AP) – Piles of paper piled up on his desk. Framed magazine covers and memorabilia on the walls. One of Shaquille O’Neal’s giant sneakers shown next to her football helmets, boxing belts and other sports memorabilia, crowding his Trump Tower office and limiting desk space.
Long before he entered politics, former President Donald Trump had a penchant for collecting. And that lifelong habit—combined with his disregard for government record-keeping rules, his careless handling of classified information, and a chaotic transition fueled by his refusal to accept defeat in 2020—all led to a federal investigation that poses extraordinary legal and political challenges.
The search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club earlier this month, the retrieval of documents from his years in the White House was an unprecedented law enforcement action against a former president who is expected to run for office again. Officials have not disclosed what exactly was contained in the boxes, but the FBI said it found 11 sets of classified recordsincluding some designated as “sensitive classified information,” a special category designed to protect secrets that could cause “extremely serious” damage to U.S. interests if disclosed publicly.
Why Trump refused to hand over the seized documents despite repeated requests remains unclear. But Trump’s disregard for the Presidential Records Act, which outlines how materials must be preserved, has been well-documented throughout his tenure.
He regularly tore up official documents that later had to be glued back together. Official items that are traditionally handed over to the National Archives are mixed with his personal belongings at the White House residence. Classified information was tweeted, shared with reporters and adversaries—even discovered in the bathroom of the White House complex.
John Bolton, who served as Trump’s third national security adviser, said that before he arrived he heard “anxiety in the air about how he handles information. And as time went on, I could certainly see why.”
Others in the Trump administration took more care with the sensitive documents. Asked directly if he kept any classified information when leaving office, former Vice President Mike Pence told The Associated Press on Friday, “Not to my knowledge.”
The investigation into Trump’s handling of documents comes as he faces increasing legal scrutiny on many fronts. Georgia probe into election meddling closes in on ex-president with former New York mayor Rudy Giulianitop defense attorney, informed earlier this month that he is the subject of a criminal investigation.
Trump, meanwhile, invoked his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination as he testified under oath in the New York attorney general’s long-running civil investigation into his business dealings. A senior business executive pleaded guilty last week in a tax fraud case brought by the Manhattan district attorney.
But few legal threats have galvanized Trump and his staunchest supporters like the search for Mar-a-Lago. The former president and his allies argued that the move amounted to political persecution, noting that the judge who approved the order had given money to Democrats. However, the judge also sided with the Republicans. White House officials have repeatedly said they had no prior knowledge of plans to search the mansion.
Trump’s allies have tried to argue that his presidency has given him unlimited power to unilaterally declassify documents without a formal declaration. But David Laufman, former head of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence division, said that doesn’t work.
“It just seems to me like a post-hoc public affairs strategy that has no connection to how classified information is actually being declassified,” said Laufman, who led the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server during her tenure as secretary of state. While he said it is true that there is no statute or order outlining the procedures the president must follow to declassify information, “at the same time, it is absurd to argue that a decision to declassify documents would not simultaneously immortalized in writing’.
It “doesn’t run itself,” he added. “There needs to be some objective, contemporary, evidence-based corroboration of the claims they’re making. And, of course, there won’t be, because they make everything up.”
The decision to store classified documents at Mar-a-Lago — a property frequented by paying members, their guests and anyone attending weddings, political fundraisers, benefit dinners and other events held on site — was part of a long pattern. of disregarding national security secrets. Former aides described a “cavalier” attitude toward classified information that played out in public opinion.
There was dinner with then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the patio at Mar-a-Lago, where guests watched and took cellphone photos of the two men reviewed details of a North Korean missile test.
There was a time when Trump revealed top secret information Israeli sources claim Islamic State fighters to Russian officials. And it was when he tweeted a high-resolution satellite image of an apparent explosion at an Iranian space center that intelligence officials warned was highly sensitive. Trump insisted he did the “absolute right” to share it.
Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Trump was “careless” with sensitive and classified information and “never seemed to worry about why it was bad.”
Grisham recalled an incident with Conan, an American military dog hailed as a hero for his role in the raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. She said that before the dog arrived at the White House, staffers were briefed that the dog could not be photographed because the images could put its handlers at risk. But when the dog arrived, Trump decided he wanted to show it to the press.
“Because he wanted publicity, Conan left,” she said. “This is an example of him not caring if he puts lives in danger. … It was like his own shiny toy that he shows off to his friends to impress them.”
Bolton said that while working for Trump, he and others often tried to explain the stakes and risks of revealing sources and methods.
“I don’t think any of that has sunk into him. He doesn’t seem to have appreciated how sensitive this is, how dangerous it is for some of our people and the risks they could be exposed to,” he said. “What looks like an innocuous picture to a private citizen can be a goldmine for foreign intelligence.”
“I would say over and over, ‘This is really sensitive, really sensitive.’ And he would say, ‘I know,’ and then go and do it anyway.
Bolton said senior intelligence officials would meet before briefings to discuss how best to handle sensitive topics, strategizing how much should be shared. Briefers quickly learned that Trump often tries to withhold sensitive documents and will take steps to make sure the documents don’t disappear, including using an iPad to show him.
“Sometimes he’d want to hold it and they’d say, ‘He’s really sensitive.’ Sometimes he just wouldn’t give it back.”
Trump’s refusal to accept his election loss also contributed to the chaos that engulfed his final days in office. The General Services Administration has been slow to recognize President Joe Biden’s victory, delaying the transition process and leaving little time for packing.
While other White House officials and even the former first lady began making arrangements, Trump largely refused. At the same time, White House staff were leaving in droves as part of the regular “exit process,” while morale, among others, had cratered since the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Bolton said he doubts Trump took the documents for criminal reasons, and instead thinks Trump likely considered them “souvenirs” like the many he has collected over the course of his life.
“I think he just thought some things were cool and wanted them,” Bolton said. “Some days he liked to collect French fries. Someday he liked to collect documents. He was just collecting things.
The Washington Post first reported in February that the National Archives pulled 15 boxes of documents and other items from Mar-a-Lago that were supposed to be turned over to the agency when Trump left the White House. An initial review of this material concluded that Trump brought presidential records and several other documents that were classified to Mar-a-Lago.
The investigation into the handling of classified material intensified in the spring as prosecutors and federal agents interviewed several people who worked in the Trump White House about how records — and especially classified documents — were handled during the chaotic end of the presidency of Trump, familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. Around the same time, prosecutors issued a subpoena for the records Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago and a subpoena for surveillance video from Mar-a-Lago showing the area where the records were stored, the person said.
A senior Justice Department official traveled to Mar-a-Lago in early June and reviewed some of the materials stored in boxes. After that meeting, prosecutors interviewed another witness who told them there were possibly additional classified documents still being stored at Mar-a-Lago, the person said. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Justice Department later sought a search warrant and pulled additional tranches of classified records.
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Balsamo reported from Washington.
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