A grand jury investigation has apparently been opened into how classified material ended up in former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Prosecutors involved with the inquiry have subpoenaed the National Archives and Records Administration for the classified material in question and issued requests for interviews from former Trump administration officials, the New York Times reported.
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The subpoena was issued in recent days and coincided with a slew of other requests the Justice Department made for records from the National Archives, according to the report. The inquiry was sparked by the discovery of classified material in a trove of 15 boxes the National Archives officials obtained from Trump's resort in January.
National Archives officials had reached out to Trump after learning he had some presidential documents, such as notes from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former President Barack Obama. After reviewing the 15 boxes, National Archives officials discovered material that was labeled "classified national security information" and referred the matter to the Justice Department.
Prosecutors are seeking to understand how that information was improperly moved from the White House and stored at Mar-a-Lago.
The former president has been facing scrutiny over his record-keeping habits during his White House days. The 15 boxes National Archives officials took from Mar-a-Lago were supposed to have been given to the agency upon Trump's departure, in keeping with the Presidential Records Act of 1978.
Besides not turning over the documents right away, Trump reportedly ripped up key documents and flushed others down the White House toilet — an allegation he denies. In response to reports about the Trump administration's lackluster document preservation, the House Oversight Committee began a review of the matter.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to the Justice Department and the National Archives.
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Trump panned then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, claiming she mishandled classified information on her personal email account. Clinton faced an FBI investigation at the time, but she never faced any criminal charges. Trump again raised Clinton's handling of classified material in his response to reports of the 15 boxes at Mar-a-Lago.
"I have been told I was under no obligation to give this material based on various legal rulings that have been made over the years," Trump previously said in a statement. "Crooked Hillary Clinton, as an example, deleted and acid-washed 32,000 emails and never gave that to the government. Then, they took large amounts of furniture out of the White House."