One of the lesser recognized factoids that have been floating around since the detailed inventory of documents recovered from Donald Trump’s solarium and soft-food destination Mar-a-Lago was that the FBI recovered more than 10,000 unclassified government documents during the August 8th search of the property.
Besides the mysterious and scary “documents that weren’t there” puzzle, NBC News reports agents seized 10,000 government unclassified photographs, letters and other documents that should have gone to the National Archives. While much media attention has gone to the number of classified documents found on site, the sheer volume of government documents Trump took from the White House and failed to deliver to the Archives even after being subpoenaed is astounding.
Remember that the potential charges listed in the search warrant were not related to classified documents only. There were all related to the mishandling of a general government record or document, not specific to classified materials; separate, more serious charges for that can be brought separately. The focus on the classified documents, though appropriate for its impact on national security, may have lost the forest for the trees in the “what is Trump actually in trouble for?” department. Trump’s looting of these records is the undeniably proven crime here.