There’s an 80’s movie called “The NeverEnding Story,” and it seems the ongoing classified documents saga should be named the same thing. The latest: former President Donald Trump and his team found more classified docs in his Mar-a-Ago home in mid-January and have turned over the information to federal agents, according to ABC News.
The new material includes a folder with classified markings and a laptop on which an aide had apparently made a copy of privileged information:
It is unclear what type of classification markings the folder had or what material had previously been inside.
Additionally, sources tell ABC News that a laptop belonging to a current aide of the former president was also provided to federal agents.
Sources said the discovery occurred in mid-January as Trump’s team was searching through additional boxes amid the Department of Justice’s ongoing efforts to have Trump’s attorneys verify that Trump no longer still has classified documents in his possession.
More classified material has been found at Mar-a-Lago, on a laptop. It was in the resort complex, and not in the “secure” storage facility. The laptop, which belongs to a current Trump aide, has been turned over to federal officials. So documents were copied/transmitted? pic.twitter.com/UMlcfDCGi3
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) February 10, 2023
The new batch was discovered inside the Mar-a-Lago complex, but not in the storage facility where FBI agents seized 46 classified folders when they raided Trump’s home in August 2022.
Trump does not appear to have addressed the new findings on his social media app, Truth Social. A spokesperson, not surprisingly, came out swinging:
In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for Trump called the government’s ongoing probe “nothing more than a targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump, concocted to try and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House.”
“Just like all the other fake hoaxes thrown at President Trump, this corrupt effort will also fail,” the spokesperson said. “The weaponized Department of Injustice [sic] has shown no regard for common decency and key rules that govern the legal system.”
The classified documents saga has been dominating the news cycle since the Mar-A-Lago raid, and since then, President Joe Biden revealed that he, too, was in possession of many secret files. In contrast with the DOJ’s treatment of Trump, they did not conduct FBI raids of Biden’s Delaware homes but did search them with the president’s permission.
Now even former Vice President Mike Pence has become embroiled in the saga as he recently discovered classified papers in his house. In response, FBI agents searched his home too, and discovered yet another document.
What is going on with these people? Do they have classified documents just lying all over their houses? In Pence’s case, the search was scheduled days in advance—couldn’t he have ripped his home apart to find every last one of them to save him from the embarrassment of the FBI finding yet another one?
Joe Biden kept some in his unsecured garage, and then tried to imply that it was okay because he had them stored alongside a really cool Corvette. Insanity.
The President just said that the documents found in his garage are in a "locked garage" like his corvette. The corvette standard is actually not in classified protocols…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) January 12, 2023
Separate special counsels have been appointed by the Department of Justice to investigate both Trump and Biden. The investigations will probably drag out endlessly as most special counsel operations run for years before we get any answers.
One thing is for sure, this neverending story will not go away anytime soon, and tomorrow someone else will probably find secret documents in their house. At this point, it’s probably a sign of DC cred to announce you have some.
