According to a detailed inventory of the material seized at the residence of Mar-a-Lago (Florida) of Donald Trump, published Friday, September 2, the FBI has requisitioned more than 11,000 government documents. They were not only in boxes in a storage room, as had become rumored before, but were also found in Trump’s personal office. In addition, dozens of empty files were found, including 48 marked “classified”, which may suggest that documents may have been lost or destroyed.
FBI agents recovered 71 empty folders from Trump’s office and 19 empty folders from a storage room. In addition to the 48 empty folders marked “classified”, there were also 40 empty folders marked “sensitive information”. Why these folders contained no paper is unclear. Seven documents marked “top secret” were found in the personal office of the former president. According to the protocols, these papers must be stored in government facilities. In a box, in addition to thirty press clippings from the period 2008-2019, three clothes, a book, eleven confidential documents or photos, 21 secrets and 255 government documents were found without classification.
According to The Guardian, this “astonishing discovery” could indicate that some of the most secret documents of the American government have not yet been recovered, even after the search of the FBI.
The New York Times writes that concerns about the “violation of rules designed to protect national security” therefore seem justified. Additionally, this revelation provides further evidence that Trump’s claim that he only had ‘declassified’ documents in his home is ‘false’.