Witness in Trump’s classified documents case asked FBI not to record interview

A witness who spoke to federal investigators about Donald Trump was so afraid of repercussions for cooperating with the FBI that he asked agents not to record his voluntary interview.

The FBI officials were speaking to the witness — whose name is redacted in documents — as part of their probe into how documents with classification markings ended up at the former president’s Palm Beach, Florida home long after the end of his term in office.

According to a copy of an FD-302 — an FBI form memorialising the contents of a witness interview — the witness, a former Trump White House official, spoke to investigators on 2 November 2022.

The investigators, including Department of Justice attorneys Jay Bratt and Julie Edelstein, advised the witness — referred to as “Person 16” in the heavily redacted document — that it is unlawful to lie to federal investigators.

The FD-302 form states that after he acknowledged the warning, the witness “refused recording of the interview” even though he was told such behaviour would be “anomalous” because other witnesses had consented to being recorded.

Despite that caution from the government, the witness told investigators he “accepted ‘that risk’” because having his interview with FBI agents recorded would be “a far bigger risk to him in the Trump world”.

The FBI form documenting the interview of “Person 16” is one of several internal government documents related to the case that have been turned over to Mr Trump’s defence team as part of the pre-trial discovery process.

Although it would ordinarily be shielded from public view by a protective order barring Mr Trump’s team or the prosecution from disseminating it to unauthorised parties, the heavily redacted version of the document has been