Trump lawyers give laptop, more classified documents to feds

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team has given federal prosecutors more documents with classified markings and an aide’s laptop in recent months, according to a report. 

The handovers happened in December of last year and in January, according to CNN. Also turned over to investigators was an empty folder marked “Classified Evening Briefing,” the news outlet reported. 

Lawyers for the 76-year-old former commander-in-chief reportedly discovered the documents during a search of boxes at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in December and turned them over to the Justice Department. 

The laptop, which belongs to an aide employed by Save America PAC, reportedly contained copies of the same documents found by Trump’s lawyers in December, and it was given to investigators in January, along with a thumb drive. 

In November, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed veteran prosecutor Jack Smith to lead two investigations into the former president, including one related to Trump’s mishandling of presidential documents and classified records. 

FBI agents seized hundreds of pages of classified documents and other presidential records during a raid of Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., residence and private club last August. 

President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence have also faced classified document scandals since Trump’s issues surfaced.

Last month, it was uncovered that lawyers for the 80-year-old president discovered several classified documents at the Penn Biden Center think tank in Washington, DC, in November 2022. More classified material was later discovered at Biden’s Wilmington, Del., home, which was searched by the FBI in January. 

On Friday, FBI agents searched Pence’s Indiana home for five hours, removing one document with classified markings more than three weeks after the former vice president turned over two boxes of records marked as sensitive to the bureau.