WASHINGTON (AP) – Lawyers for former President Donald Trump in recent months voluntarily handed over additional papers to federal investigators marked as classified, as well as a laptop belonging to a Trump aide, a person familiar with the situation said Friday night.
The legal team also provided an empty folder with classified markings, according to the person, who spoke anonymously to The Associated Press to discuss the ongoing investigation. It is not immediately clear what material should be in the folder.
A Justice Department special counsel has been investigating the retention of hundreds of Trump documents marked as classified at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. FBI agents who served a search warrant on the property in August recovered approximately 100 classified documents, including records classified at the top secret level.
A federal grand jury has been hearing evidence in the case for months. Prosecutors are investigating whether Trump knowingly stole the material and whether he or others sought to obstruct the investigation, according to court filings.
ABC News first reported the discovery of the additional documents.
A person familiar with the matter said several pages with classified markings were found during a search last week at the Mar-a-Lago compound overseen by Trump’s legal team, and immediately given to the Justice Department. The documents were found in a box containing thousands of pages, the person said. Trump’s legal team has enlisted investigatorsto look for other classified documents that the government has yet to discover.
Separately on Friday, the FBI searched the home of former Vice President Mike Pence in Indiana and found additional documents with classified markings, after the discovery by his lawyer last month of sensitive documents. FBI officials have also searched the Delaware homes of President Joe Biden after lawyers found documents with classified information at his former office in Washington and at his Wilmington property.