According to a report from the Washington Post, multiple witnesses told prosecutors in Donald Trump’s ongoing criminal investigation by the Department of Justice that the 76-year-old twice-impeached former president was “careless” with classified documents after he left the White House in January 2021. The witnesses reportedly claimed that he often left classified documents out in the open, and sometimes even allegedly showed them to people when they visited his Mar-a-Lago club!
Donald Trump Was Reportedly 'Careless' With Classified Documents
Trump, who is currently running for office again, with Ron DeSantis as one of his latest competitors, is being investigated by the Department of Justice for allegedly mishandling classified documents which they believe he removed from the White House when his presidency came to an end.
The investigation comes following the FBI's August 8th 2022 raid on his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida, which resulted in a number of classified documents – some of which were marked 'secret' and 'top secret' – being seized after he refused to turn them over to the National Archives. The Department of Justice is currently investigating whether Trump broke federal laws – including the Espionage Act of 1917, which criminalized the release of information regarding the US's national defense – by mishandling the top-secret documents.
Rudy Giuliani Says Donald Trump Encouraged Him To Take Top-Secret Documents Home
On a January 2023 episode of the WABC77 radio show Uncovering the Truth with Rudy Giuliani & Dr. Maria Ryan, Rudy Giuliani claimed that Trump even encouraged him to take some classified documents home with him, as he didn’t think it was a big deal!
On the show, the former New York City mayor reflected on a moment early on in Trump’s presidency, whereby he was allegedly working on "vetting" some "very rich" people and going through their tax returns at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, when Trump allegedly suggested he should take some secret documents home with him! He reiterated that did *not* take them home with him, and instead, would put them in a small safe at his desk to work on the next day when he returned.
"When I was his lawyer, I mean, there was a period of time I was there like, uh, 10 straight days," Giuliani began. "I didn’t take, listen to this, this is my training on 'top secret,' I didn’t take them out of Mar-a-Lago," he continued, adding, "He told me, 'Oh, take them home with you.'" He then said, "I’m not going to take Wilbur Ross’ tax returns home with me. I could misplace them!" in relation to Ross, who served as Commerce Secretary during the Trump administration. He added: "I – you know, I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, knowingly, and I never got caught – but I don’t remember ever taking a doc."
Former Trump Official Revealed That The President's Office Mishandled Confidential Documents
Back in December 2022, we reported that Olivia Troye – a national security official who worked as a homeland security and counter-terrorism adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence – told MSNBC that it was a "known thing" that her colleagues were careless with sensitive papers and information.
"I found classified information in the ladies' room of the White House one time in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building," she said in the interview. In another past interview, she told Insider that she discovered files in a White House bathroom and "thought it was odd that someone put them down and forgot them." Troye said that she immediately gave the materials to security, and left her position in the administration shortly after. She also said: "I covered it up, I put it in a folder. It wasn't marked properly. I was not expecting to walk into the ladies' room and find a document like that."
