DailyExpertNews
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Two documents with secret markings were found in a Florida storage unit during a search by a team hired by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers, a person familiar with the situation told DailyExpertNews.
Those documents were turned over to the FBI. A search of four Trump properties found no other documents with secret markings, the source said.
The discovery of the documents was first reported by The Washington Post.
The team of two searched New York’s Trump Tower, the Bedminster golf club, an office location in Florida and the storage room where the two documents were found and where the General Services Administration had shipped Trump’s belongings after he left the White House.
The four searches stemmed from ongoing concerns from the Justice Department that not all documents had been returned to the federal government. The searches have been conducted over the past few weeks under the supervision of Trump’s legal team, another source familiar with the case told DailyExpertNews.
Trump’s lawyers offered to let federal investigators observe the search of his property in Bedminster, but that offer was rejected. Given the Justice Department’s response, Trump’s lawyers have not made a similar offer to search the other properties.
It would be highly unusual for the Justice Department to observe searches that are not being conducted by law enforcement. The department declined to comment. Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman, said the former president and his counsel “remain cooperative and transparent.”
It’s unclear what subsequent contact between Trump’s legal team and federal investigators has been since the searches.
DailyExpertNews previously reported exclusively that Trump’s legal team was considering allowing federal agents to re-search Mar-a-Lago to meet Justice Department demands that all sensitive government documents be returned. The case came up this fall in a court proceeding in which the Justice Department asked a judge to issue an order forcing the Trump team to arrange another search.
This story and headline were updated on Wednesday with additional information.
