Trump allegedly held onto 70 boxes of classified documents – while telling staffer to claim all were returned

Donald Trump allegedly held onto 70 boxes of classified documents while telling one of his staffers to claim that they were all returned.

In a Thursday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida in West Palm Beach, the Department of Justice opposed Trump staffer Walt Nauta’s motion to “suppress evidence”.

The prosecutors noted that Mr Nauta “had been a valet in the White House during Trump’s administration” and that he “previously held a high-level security clearance andreceived training in handling classified documents”.

“During his presidency, Trump used dozens of boxes to accumulate and store records in an informal filing system,” they added. “At the end of his presidency in January 2021, around 85 to 95 of these boxes were removed from the White House and transported to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida, where they were later placed in a storage room.”

Mr Nauta was part of the team that moved the boxes, prosecutors say.

In 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had discussions with Mr Trump regarding the documents.

“Trump wanted to review his boxes before providing them to NARA, and employees (including Nauta) brought two to four at a time to his personal residence in Mar-a-Lago for him to review,” the Department of Justice said in the filing. “After the employees (including Nauta) brought about 15 to 17 boxes, Trump instructed them to stop, and on January 17, 2022, employees handed over 15 boxes to NARA.”

“Trump indicated to his staff that the 15 boxes were the only boxes that would be going to NARA and that there were no more, and he instructed an employee to tell one of his lawyers there were no more boxes at Mara-Lago,” they added. “But