'Nothing about this is normal': More questions raised about Trump transfer of Mar-a-Lago documents

According to a new report from the Washington Post, aides to former president Donald Trump were forced to wait until the last minute to start boxing up documents related to the former president's four years in office because he believed he might still remain in the Oval Office despite losing the 2020 presidential election.

Then, after reality set in, normal protocols for the documents were thrown out the window leading some to question how it was handled both to the Florida resort and then back again to the National Archives

This past week it was revealed that Trump shipped 15 boxes of documents -- which reportedly included top-secret documents --and memorabilia to his Mar-a-Lago resort instead of handing the boxes over to the National Archives in violation of the Presidential Records Act.

As the Post is reporting on Saturday, aides to the former president held back from making preparations to leave the White House out of fear over how Trump would react.

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"Trump — who spent the weeks after Election Day furiously working to overturn the results of a free and fair election — procrastinated packing to leave until the very last minute. His obsession with falsely claiming the election was stolen also made his staff reluctant to broach the question of packing, fearful that doing so would draw his ire, said one former White House official, speaking anonymously to share details of private conversations," the Post is reporting, adding, "Trump was noticeably secretive about the packing process, and top aides and longtime administrative staffers did not see the contents, the people said."

The report notes that the return of the 15 disputed boxes raised eyebrows too.

According to the Post, "A trucking administrator at Bennett, a Georgia transportation firm that handles a lot of government contracts, said that under traditional circumstances, shipment of these sorts of materials would be handled through a secure transfer — including GPS tracking of the vehicle and a team trained to handle sensitive information," with one person familiar with the transfer noting at the time, "Nothing about this is normal."

"Finally, on Jan. 17, a contractor dispatched by the Archives arrived at Mar-a-Lago to load the boxes into a truckand transport them a thousand miles north, eventually landing at a sensitive compartmented information facility — known as a SCIF — in the greater Washington area. Trump’s assistant had been looped in on the emails handling the logistics, and both Trump’s team and the National Archives described the in-person handover as amicable. Trump said in a statement it was 'without conflict' and 'very friendly,'" the report states.

The report adds, "As the boxes’ journey came to a close, Trump advisers have scrambled to do damage control. They have asked the Archives to dispute the spate of recent reporting on the myriad ways Trump ignored the Presidential Records Act and to declare that Trump has done nothing wrong, according to two people familiar with the entreaties, speaking anonymously to share details of private discussions."

According to one source, even after recently being asked to turn over the treasure trove of documents, "At first it was unclear what he was going to give back and when."

You can read more here.