Investigators hired by former President Donald Trump have reportedly found additional material marked as classified among his belongings, reigniting questions of what other items might remain in his possession following the court-approved search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in August.
Both The New York Times and The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that a search team hired by Trump found two documents marked as classified. The documents were in a storage locker rented by the federal General Services Administration to temporarily house items taken as part of the former president's return to private life in 2021.
The items have since been reportedly turned over to the FBI, and their exact contents are currently unknown. The investigators who found the classified documents had been tapped by Trump's legal team to search his properties for any additional materials he was not authorized to have, after Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell instructed them to resume looking for items that belong in federal custody. Government officials have long questioned whether Trump kept more material than was recovered at Mar-a-Lago this summer. According to the Post, similar searches were conducted on or around Thanksgiving at Trump's eponymous Manhattan skyscraper and New Jersey golf club. Attorneys for the former president reportedly told the Justice Department that no further items of interest had been found at either of those sites.
A Trump spokesman insisted to the Times that the former president's attorneys "continue to be cooperative and transparent, despite the unprecedented, illegal and unwarranted attack against President Trump and his family by the weaponized Department of Justice."
However, the discovery of additional classified material has raised the specter that other sites beyond Mar-a-Lago may have contained additional, as-of-yet unfound items. According to a Post source, the storage facility in which these latest items were found also contained "suits and swords and wrestling belts and all sorts of things."
"To my knowledge, [Trump] has never even been to that storage unit," the person added. "I don't think anyone in Trump World could tell you what's in that storage unit."
Last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed former DOJ prosecutor Jack Smith to serve as special counsel, overseeing the department's Trump-focused investigations.