It was reported in February that former President Donald Trump was caught taking 15 large boxes of documents from the White House to his home at Mar-a-Lago when he left office. The National Archives sent a team to Palm Beach, Florida to collect the truckload of information it discovered was missing last summer.
Last week, House Oversight chair Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) asked for the documents as part of a Congressional probe. She explained that she's attempted to work with the DOJ to obtain the information, but her letter said that they had been "interfering." Some of the documents were listed as classified information at the top-secret level.
It was enough information to lead legal analysts to ponder whether the refusal was an indication that they were doing their own investigation into the documents.
On Tuesday, however, the Justice Department confirmed in a statement printed by the Washington Post that there is an investigation.
Acting assistant attorney general Peter Hyun explained in his letter that their policy is cooperate "to the fullest extent consistent with the constitutional and statutory obligations of the Executive Branch,” adding that “the Department’s goal in all cases is to satisfy legitimate legislative interests while protecting Executive Branch confidentiality interests. Examples of confidential information include … information the disclosure of which might compromise open criminal investigations or prosecutions or civil cases.”
It confirms that the National Archives documents are being used in "open criminal investigations or prosecutions or civil cases."
The Oversight Committee is working out its next steps.
Read the full report here.
