What's Missing From Mar-A-Lago Is Even More Concerning Than What Was Found
As the January 6 Committee investigates how involved Donald Trump was in the Capitol insurrection and fake electors, the Justice Department is trying to determine how much the former president might have damaged America's national security. The leader of the United States taking classified documents from the White House seems like the plot of a Hollywood movie, not real news — until now. Even Trump's former Attorney General Bill Barr isn't defending his former boss about the classified materials. During an interview on Fox News (via Twitter), Barr said, "I think for them to have taken things to the current point they [Justice Department] probably have pretty good evidence . . . People say this was unprecedented, well it's also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a county club."
Barr did not hold back during his appearance on the pro-Trump cable network. Barr told Fox News (via Politico), "And how long is the government going to try to get that back? They jawbone for a year. They were deceived on the voluntary actions taken. They then went and got a subpoena. They were deceived on that, they feel, and the facts are starting to show that they were being jerked around. And so how long . . . how long do they wait?"
But new information from the Justice Department revealed what's missing from Mar-a-Lago is even more concerning than what was found by the FBI.
FBI found empty classified folders at Mar-a-Lago
New details from the Justice Department about the startling number of classified documents Donald Trump held at Mar-a-Lago have been revealed to be even worse than we thought. TMZ reported when the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, agents found many empty folders labeled as "classified." A more detailed list of the FBI raid was published on September 2, showing Americans (and allies worldwide) the gravity of the national security crisis. Hugo Lowell, the Congressional reporter for The Guardian, tweeted: "Unsealed detailed inventory of what FBI seized from Trump's office includes: 7 TOP SECRET marked docs, 43 Empty CLASSIFIED folders, 28 Empty Return to Staff Sec/Mil. Aid folders, 26 Magazines/Press Articles 1/2020-11/2020, and 99 Magazines/Press Articles 1/2017-10/2018."
The Justice Department's updated list of what was found doesn't indicate what happened to the documents inside the empty classified folders, according to The Washington Post. Politico reporter Kyle Cheney also shared an important point on Twitter about the documents that were marked "return to the staff secretary." Cheney tweeted: "On the dozens of folders marked 'return to staff secretary' . . . Derek Lyons vacated the "staff secretary" position on Dec. 18, 2021."
The former president's spokesperson was on Twitter after the Justice Department's detailed report was released. Taylor Budowich tweeted: "The new 'detailed' inventory list only further proves that this unprecedented and unnecessary raid of President Trump's home was not some surgical, confined search and retrieval that the Biden administration claims, it was a SMASH AND GRAB."