Former President Donald Trump was caught taking 15 large boxes of documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago when he left the White House, it was reported in February. The National Archives sent a team to Palm Beach, Florida to collect the truck-load of information it discovered was missing last summer.
What was uncovered, however, is that Trump didn't just take any old documents, many of them were reportedly top-secret and classified information relating to national security.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the Justice Department appears poised to begin an official probe into the removal of the documents. Sources familiar with the probe spoke about the ongoing investigation, saying that it was in the early stages. It's unknown the degree to which the Justice Department has made its way through the boxes seized at Mar-a-Lago. There are people who may have witnessed the documents being removed or may have been involved in it, but thus far it's unclear whether the DOJ has reached out to any witnesses.
The revelations came from House Oversight chair Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), who alleged on Thursday in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland that the DOJ was blocking her committee from looking into the boxes from Mar-a-Lago. In fact, she used the word "interfering."
If the DOJ is doing their own probe, it might be why they're refusing to turn over anything to Maloney and her committee currently. She wrote in the letter that she wants an explanation for why they are blocking her request.
“The Committee does not wish to interfere in any manner with any potential or ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice,” Maloney explained in the letter. “However, the Committee has not received any explanation as to why the Department is preventing NARA from providing information to the Committee that relates to compliance with the [Presidential Records Act], including unclassified information describing the contents of the 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago.”
The FBI is refusing to comment on whether an investigation exists.
Over the past weeks, officials have called on the Justice Department to do more in investigating Trump and his family's role in Jan. 6. In a series of speeches before voting to hold Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt of Congress, members of both sides specifically highlighted the recommendations to the DOJ.
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Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) told the DOJ that they should “not apply any doctrine of immunity that might block Congress from fully uncovering and addressing the causes of the January 6th attack.” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) explained that the Jan. 6 committee was doing its work and that “the Department of Justice needs to do theirs.”
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