'Long pattern of behavior': Why Trump’s 'organized chaos' storage system is 'at the heart' of his indictment

Former President Donald Trump has maintained that he did nothing illegal by storing boxes of government documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office. The documents, he insists, were all "declassified" before he moved them out of the White House and down to Palm Beach, Florida.

But Jack Smith vehemently disagrees. The special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges that Trump recklessly jeopardized the United States' national security by moving countless classified documents that never should have left Washington, D.C. And 31 of the 37 federal counts that Trump is facing in the Smith/DOJ indictment are for alleged violations of the Espionage Act of 1917.

In a New York Times article published on June 15, reporters Maggie Haberman, Alan Feuer and Michael S. Schmidt emphasize that Trump's storage system — which they describe as "organized chaos" — is "at the heart of" the indictment.

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"Mr. Trump's attachment to the contents of the boxes has now left him in serious legal peril, but it appears to be in keeping with a long pattern of behavior," the reporters explain. "Mr. Trump has always hung onto news clippings, documents and other mementos, according to more than a half-dozen people who have worked for him over the years, including before his presidency. His office at Trump Tower in New York, a corner space on the 26th Floor, had a desk that was often piled high with papers."

Haberman, Feuer and Schmidt add that Trump "kept keepsakes for decades, including a series of letters written to him by famous people more than 30 years ago, which he later published as a book that he sells for nearly $100 a copy."

The Times reporters note that when Trump was president, then-White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly "grew concerned" about government records he was moving to his residence in the White House — and his storage patterns continued after he left the White House and moved to Mar-a-Lago on January 20, 2021.

"According to prosecutors, the notion that Mr. Trump was simply too busy to know all that he had is undercut by the facts," Haberman, Feuer and Schmidt report. "As early as January 2021, as Mr. Trump was preparing to leave office after efforts to thwart the transfer of power to Joseph R. Biden Jr., he and his White House staff members, including (co-defendant and Trump aide Walt) Nauta, packed materials into boxes, the indictment says. 'Trump was personally involved in this process,' it says."

READ MORE: Jack Smith: Trump broke laws critical to the 'safety and security of the United States'

Read The New York Times' full report at this link (subscription required).