DOJ 'intensifying' Donald Trump investigation by questioning team that searched his properties: report

10 January 2023

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is “intensifying” its investigation by choosing to question individuals from the team that searched former President Donald Trump’s properties and found more classified documents last year, The Guardian reports.

Although the DOJ received a “general explanation” of who would be searching Trump’s properties before the new classified documents were handed over to government officials in November, the agency remained unsettled.

As a result, DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith asked a federal judge to demand from Trump’s attorneys the names of individuals who are a part of the search firm.

After the firm — which is a “known entity to Trump” — discovered two more classified documents, the DOJ asked U.S. district court judge Beryl Howell to hold the former president’s office in contempt due to Trump’s failure to turn over all necessary documents when a subpoena was issued the first time several months earlier.

However, the agency’s ask was not originally granted, as Judge Howell asserted that DOJ officials needed to "work out the matter" with Trump's attorneys. But, Howell agreed to the request just last week, following “a tense exchange” with Trump’s attorneys “where she insisted the government needed to know the names.”

According to The Guardian, the judge's order was issued on January 5, and the DOJ continues to consider its next steps "specifically for the documents case."

Whether the agency issued subpoenas to the individuals on the search team has not yet been confirmed.

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