Special counsel Smith subpoenas Secret Service agents in Mar-a-Lago classified documents probe

On Tuesday, April 4, former President Donald Trump is scheduled to be arraigned in New York City following a criminal indictment by a grand jury in connection with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr.'s investigation of alleged hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. But Bragg is not the only prosecutor who has been conducting a Trump-related probe.
Trump is also being investigated by Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis as well as special counsel Jack Smith, who is heading two separate probes for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — one involving the January 6, 2021 insurrection and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the other involving classified government documents being kept at Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach, Florida.
In the Mar-a-Lago case, according to ABC News' Luke Barr, Smith has subpoenaed "multiple U.S. Secret Service agents."
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Barr reports, "The agents' testimony is expected in the next few weeks. The development was first reported by Fox News."
Under the Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012 — signed into law by then-President Barack Obama — all former presidents are entitled to lifetime protection from the U.S. Secret Service, including Trump, Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter. Although Carter, now 98, left the White House in January 1981, he is still entitled to Secret Service protection under that law.
It remains to be seen whether or not either of Smith's Trump-related investigations will lead to any type of criminal indictment. In the Mar-a-Lago/classified documents probe, Smith is examining the kinds of documents that Trump was storing at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office on January 20, 2021 — the day in which President Joe Biden was inaugurated.
According to CNN reporters Katelyn Polantz and Evan Perez, "Witnesses are being questioned about what they saw in Trump's private residential and work areas within the club…. Investigators have also collected texts and notes from Molly Michael, Trump's assistant, which detail what Trump was doing and who he was meeting with in his day-to-day. The new evidence the team working for special counsel Jack Smith is focusing on is separate from what was obtained through a recent grand jury pursuit of Trump's defense lawyer Evan Corcoran, a source told CNN."
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Polantz and Perez note that an "unprecedented search" of Mar-a-Lago "recovered more than a hundred documents marked as classified."
Under the Presidential Records Act of 1978, former presidents are required to give White House documents to the federal government for storage when they leave office.
READ MORE:Ari Melber: Special counsel Jack Smith has a 'secret weapon' in his pursuit of Donald Trump
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