Former President Donald Trump quietly returned to Mar-a-Lago to check through boxes of classified documents he had stored there ahead of the FBI raid to seize the files, sources have told ABC News.
Aides reportedly kept Trump's July 2022 trip to Mar-a-Lago secret "for weeks," and it became a focus of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith's investigation of possible obstruction of justice by Trump, according to the sources.
A source cited at least one witness who worked closely with Trump who recalled being told that the former president was on site "checking on the boxes," ABC reported.
The trip was reportedly described as "highly unusual" because Trump was staying at his Bedminster golf resort in New Jersey during the Florida summer heat, and his Mar-a-Lago living quarters at the time were reportedly under construction.
A few weeks later the FBI hauled away several boxes of classified information from Mar-a-Lago that Trump had moved from the White House. Such documents are supposed to go to the National Archives when a president leaves office.
Boxes of sensitive classified documents were photographed stacked, unsecured, in a bathroom, on the stage in Mar-a-Lago ballroom, and in an accessible storage area at the golf resort.
At the time of the raid Trump and his representatives had been talking for months about turning over the material.
Trump was charged months later with 37 felony counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record, and willful retention of national defense information. His legal team has since successfully battled for more that a year to delay the trial.
He has denied all wrongdoing.
When asked for a response to the latest details, Trump campaign spokesperson Steve Chueng told ABC News that the entire classified documents case against Trump was a "political sham."
