Trump might've stashed documents at Mar-a-Lago for two ‘deeply damaging and troubling’ reasons: biographer

As speculation continues to mount over what classified documents former President Donald Trump and why he chose to remove them from the White House at the end of his tenure, Bloombergcontributor and Trump biographer Timothy L. O'Brien writes that Trump and his allies' claims of political persecution have drowned out the more pressing questions abi why the FBI conducted the raid in the first place.

According to O'Brien, there are three likely reasons Trump wanted to keep the classified information to himself, what the information isn't exactly that clear yet.

The first reason, O'Brien said, could simply be due to Trump's immature need to hold on to the exclusivity and privileged nature of the presidency he now no longer holds.

But Trump might also have "deeply damaging and troubling" reasons for retaining the material, he said.

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"Unfettered greed has motivated Trump his entire life. He didn’t get into the casino business to beautify Atlantic City," O'Brien wrote. "He didn’t propose a mega-development on Manhattan’s West Side because it would have made New York more livable. He didn’t start Trump University to educate students, and he didn’t host 'The Apprentice' to tutor entrepreneurs. He didn’t originally run for president to revitalize democracy. Money, money, money."

And third, Trump could be trying to salvage his reputation.

"...what other communications are contained in the documents Trump kept? Anything with Russian President Vladimir Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping?" O'Brien speculated. "How about documents pertaining to Trump’s phone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy from that time when Trump was trying to strong-arm Zelenskiy into digging up dirt on his political opponent, Joe Biden. Those communications led to the first of Trump’s two impeachment proceedings."

FBI agents recovered records marked "top secret" during their search of former president Trump's Florida estate, according to documents made public this week in a probe that includes possible violations of the US Espionage Act.

READ: Trump warns ‘terrible things are going to happen’ in Fox News rant against FBI’s ‘sneak attack’

The warrant and related materials, unsealed by a Florida judge, showed agents took away with them a significant amount of classified files after the raid, which ignited a political firestorm in an already bitterly divided country.

The extraordinary search was based partly on suspicions of violations of the US Espionage Act related to the illegal retention of sensitive defense documents, the warrant showed.

Some of the papers were marked "top secret" and were "meant to be only available in special government facilities," said the unsealed seven-page federal court filing.

The filing contained a list of items removed from Mar-a-Lago, including information about the "President of France," and the warrant to search the palatial estate in Palm Beach.

With additional reporting by AFP