'Obstruction': Trump asked witness to move Mar-a-Lago documents to his residence, report says

A Trump employee who has become a key witness after telling the FBI they were directed specifically by the former president to move boxes of documents into Donald Trump’s personal residence after Trump was sent a subpoena in May, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

That description of events was apparently corroborated by security-camera footage, which showed people moving the boxes into Trump's office at Mar-a-Lago after the subpoena was received.

Here's former U.S. Army prosecutor and NBC News legal analyst Glenn Kirschner giving his two cents on the topic.

Washington Post correspondent Devlin Barrett broke the news. On Thursday's MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Barrett told the panel that the new reporting showed investigators had filled in two gaps in the case by getting that witness testimony and the supporting video footage, although the employee's identity still had not been publicly confirmed.

"We're told this witness in particular, this key witness, that is considered very important to the investigation, was interviewed initially by the FBI and denied having those boxes and denied knowing anything about sensitive documents -- just said that wasn't part of my job, I don't know anything about it," Barrett said.

"As the investigation proceeded the FBI went and interviewed that person again, and this time, that person told a very different story, which was, look, I moved the boxes, I was told to do that, and that, in connection with the security footage, really convinced investigators that they had a lot to work with," Barrett added.

Former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi, commenting on The Post’s report, tagged it with just one word: “#obstruction.”

The Department of Justice has previously alleged that classified documents at the resort were "likely concealed and removed" from a storage room at Mar-a-Lago as part of an effort to "obstruct" the FBI's investigation into Trump's potential mishandling of classified materials.

Since the Aug. 8 search, Trump has offered a number of public defenses of why documents with classified markings remained at Mar-a-Lago — saying he declassified the secret documents, suggesting that the FBI planted evidence during the search, and suggesting that as a former president he may have had a right to keep classified documents.

National security law experts have overwhelmingly dismissed such claims, saying they range from far-fetched to nonsensical. Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich did not respond directly to The Post, but accused the Biden administration of weaponizing law enforcement, saying the investigation is "a desperate attempt to retain political power."