Insider witness could help DOJ determine if Trump hid classified documents: NYT

A confidential insider witness who worked for Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago could help the Justice Department as it intensifies its efforts to determine whether the former president sought to conceal sensitive classified documents after the agency issued a subpoena in May 2021 demanding their return, The New York Times reports.

The DOJ has issued a new wave of subpoenas as part of an aggressive effort to understand how Trump stored classified documents he took from the White House and determine who had access to them, how Mar-a-Lago’s camera system works and what the former president told his aides and attorneys about what documents he had and where they were kept, the report said.

Maggie Haberman, Adam Goldman, Alan Feuer, Ben Protess and Michael S. Schmidt write for The Times: “At the heart of the inquiry is whether Mr. Trump sought to hide some documents after the Justice Department issued a subpoena last May demanding their return.”

“The existence of an insider witness, whose identity has not been disclosed, could be a significant step in the investigation, which is being overseen by Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. The witness is said to have provided investigators with a picture of the storage room where the material had been held. Little else is known about what prosecutors might have learned from the witness or when the witness first began to provide information to the prosecutors.”

At least four additional Mar-a-Lago employees and another person with knowledge of Trump’s thinking when he initially returned material to the National Archives have been subpoenaed in recent weeks, according to the report.

“Two people said that nearly everyone who works at Mar-a-Lago has been subpoenaed, and that some who serve in fairly obscure jobs have been asked back by investigators,” the report said.