White House staff tried to figure out how to get docs Trump had taken to the residence before he left office: report

As part of the report that the Justice Department would prefer not to release the methodology for the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, the New York Times revealed that former White House aides anticipated the documents problem.

In a tweet from Maggie Haberman, she explained that in the weeks leading up to Jan. 20, 2021, White House staff was trying to figure out how to get documents from Trump that he'd taken with him to the residence so that they could be properly stored. By then, however, the staff secretary, Derek Lyons, left and former chief of staff Mark Meadows said he'd handle it.

"...Meadows, the man who oversaw presidential records in the chaotic closing days of the administration, failed to organize an effort to collect, box and deliver materials to the National Archives — as prior presidents, and Mr. Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence, did," two sources with knowledge of the events said.

Trump's lawyer, Patrick Philbin, also tried to get him to turn over the documents to the National Archives, but he resisted.

"It's not theirs, it's mine," advisers told the New York Times Trump told them.

According to the Times, the final days of the Trump administration "instead, often focused on settling political grievances and personal grudges."

The quote from the sources could also be an indication that Trump world intends to throw Meadows under the bus for the classified documents.

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The Times went on to describe the contrast between Trump's office and Pence's, which was cataloging and indexing all of the information necessary to comply with the National Archives and records keeping laws.

Pence's counsel, Greg Jacob was described as trying to ensure Pence left office without a single piece of paper that didn't belong to him personally.

Read the full report at the New York Times.