HIDDEN: Jack Smith now investigating a Trump mystery box

HIDDEN: Jack Smith now investigating a Trump mystery box

When the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, agents removed more than two dozen boxes of documents and other items, many of which the National Archives says are government property and should have been returned before. That wasn’t the end, though — additional materials were later turned over, and one box seems to have traveled a path that is of particular interest to investigators.

This box holds documents that were reportedly not only moved to a rented office space (in direct contrast to Trump’s repeated claims that everything was locked in a secure storeroom) but scanned, digitized, uploaded to a cloud, and emailed to an employee.

Then, weeks after the property was searched, the box was moved back to Trump’s on-site office.

Trump’s team  has since turned over the documents and a laptop containing scanned copies of the material, but the chain of events leaves questions unanswered.

Who else might be in possession of or have access to the scanned and uploaded material, and why was the box moved off-site before the search of Mar-a-Lago?

An attorney for Trump has admitted that an aide scanned the documents, and says that the classified markings went unnoticed (an admission that also defies Trump’s recent insinuation, seen below, that he had only empty folders marked ‘classified,’ not actual documents).

However, Special Counsel Jack Smith is reportedly looking closely into the facts. From CNN:

The odyssey of the box has been a recent focus of Smith’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, according to people familiar with the line of questioning from federal prosecutors…One person who described the box’s movements and the special counsel’s inquiry into it described federal investigators as suspecting a “shell game with classified documents.”

Trump has tried to spin his possession of government documents in a variety of ways, including claiming that he declassified the papers (a red herring since they don’t have to be classified to be government property which law required Trump to surrender on demand); that the documents were his and must be returned to him, and most recently, that they weren’t documents at all, merely empty folders.

Trump ranted on his Truth Social app:

“Many of the so-called “documents” that the “Gestapo” took in the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, unlike the”No Raids of Biden,” were merely inexpensive and very common folders with words such as “Presidential Reading,” “Confidential,” “Classified,” or other words stamped on the front cover. There was nothing inside of the folders because, during meetings where information was passed out, say at the Oval Office, when finished the papers inside were taken back, but the empty folders were left behind…..”

Trump himself has not publicly addressed the matter of this last box of surrendered documents, or the laptop, which was also turned over.

[Screenshot via Donald Trump/Truth Social]
Stephanie Bazzle

Steph Bazzle is a news writer who covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph. Sign up for all of her stories to be delivered to your inbox here: