A Trump employee told federal agents that boxes containing troves of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago were moved at the bidding of the ex-president before the Florida estate was raided by FBI agents in August, according to a new report.
The witness account, backed by surveillance footage, indicates that Donald Trump told people to move the boxes to his residence at the Florida resort after the former president’s advisors received a subpoena in May demanding any classified documents remaining on the property, according to the Washington Post.
The unidentified employee, who was working at Mar-a-Lago, has been interviewed multiple times by federal agents, sources familiar with the situation told the paper.
In an initial interview with agents, the employee denied handling the boxes and documents. However investigators decided to interview him again after gathering additional evidence.
In the subsequent interview, he claimed that Trump told people to move the boxes to his residence on the resort property, according to the paper.
The employee’s narrative was corroborated by security footage, which showed people moving the boxes, sources said. He is now considered a key witness in the investigation.
The employee’s witness account and security footage were significant pieces of federal authorities’ criminal probe that helped convince them to seek a warrant to search Trump’s property, the report said.
Sources familiar with the investigation told the Washington Post that authorities are concerned that if the employee’s identity becomes public, he could face harassment from Trump’s supporters.
The FBI raided Trump’s Florida estate on Aug. 8 and seized boxes of materials he removed from the White House, including 103 documents marked classified that had not been turned over to the government in response to the subpoena.
Trump has repeatedly insisted he had declassified the records and said there’s no definitive document declassification process for US heads of state.
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