One of Donald Trump’s personal attorneys signed a statement provided to the FBI attesting that all classified documents had been removed from Mar-a-Lago and returned to federal authorities, Trump’s supper club and seasonal lodging in Florida, the New York Times reports.
The statement, made after a June 3rd visit to the estate by Justice Department attorney working in the national security branch Jay I. Bratt and other government officials who was shown the storage room of documents by two of Trump’s lawyers, Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb. It’s unclear if either of those two attorneys or if another member of Trump’s patchwork legal team signed the letter to the DOJ.
The existence of the letter further undermines various claims by the Trump camp and his apologists who claim Trump did nothing wrong. The letter is an apparent acknowledgment that the material stored at Mar-a-Lago were, in fact, government property and that at least a number of the documents were marked with some sort of classification. Trump has claimed that the material were his personal papers and that they were all declassified. It also completely undermines the claims of the various and numerous conspiracy theorists, including those on Trump’s legal team and those broadcasting on his propaganda networks, claiming the FBI planted the documents.