Grand Jury in Florida Hears Testimony in Trump Documents Case

A federal grand jury in Miami continued hearing from witnesses on Wednesday in the investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s possession of hundreds of classified documents and other presidential records at his private club in Florida after he left office.

Among those who appeared for questions was Taylor Budowich, a former spokesman to Mr. Trump who now is a top adviser at the super PAC supporting Mr. Trump’s presidential candidacy.

It remained unclear what Mr. Budowich was asked by prosecutors working for the special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the inquiry, or what responses he provided. But Mr. Budowich was working for Mr. Trump during a period when the Justice Department began the investigation last year into his handling of the classified materials, after officials at the National Archives had spent much of 2021 trying to retrieve them.

After his appearance ended, Mr. Budowich posted a message on Twitter saying that he answered “every question honestly.” He described the grand jury inquiry as “a bogus and deeply troubling effort to use the power of government to ‘get’ Trump.”

His lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., declined to comment.

Mr. Budowich’s appearance came amid signs that Mr. Smith was nearing the end of the documents investigation and was poised to make a decision about whether to bring charges against Mr. Trump or some of his aides. The special counsel’s office is also conducting a separate inquiry in Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The status of that investigation seems to be lagging somewhat behind the classified documents case.

Most of the documents investigation has been conducted by a grand jury sitting in Washington, which has heard from numerous witnesses over the past several months, including some of Mr. Trump’s White House advisers; some low-level workers at Mar-a-Lago, his club and residence in Florida; and even more than 20 members of his Secret Service security detail.

Only a handful of witnesses — including some Mar-a-Lago employees — have appeared so far before the grand jury in Miami, which seems to have started hearing evidence last month, according to people familiar with its workings. It remains uncertain how many more witnesses are scheduled to testify before the Miami grand jury, which is sitting in the city’s federal courthouse.

Recently, there have been indications that the grand jury in Washington has either expired or paused hearing testimony, according to several people familiar with its workings. Some of those people said the last witnesses to appear for questioning in Washington did so in early or mid-May.

Should prosecutors ultimately charge Mr. Trump — which he and some of his advisers are said to believe is likely — it remains an open question whether Mr. Smith’s team would file an indictment in Washington, Miami or perhaps in both cities.

While many of the central events in the documents inquiry occurred in Florida — perhaps most notably a search of Mar-a-Lago by the F.B.I. last summer — the case was opened by national security prosecutors working out of the Justice Department in Washington. Legal experts have debated which location would provide prosecutors with the best venue to sustain criminal charges.