Among the hundreds of separate files recovered by FBI agents from Mar-a-Lago earlier this month was a TIME magazine cover of Donald Trump titled “Knock knock”, as per a photo released by the Department of Justice has shown.
The February 2019 TIME magazine cover, which showed the former US president with Democrat politicians standing behind him, appeared in a photo included in a Justice Department court filing on Tuesday. In the cover image, Mr Trump is seen looking suspicious and over his shoulder, where more than a dozen possible contenders for the 2020 Democrat nomination stood.
The photo also featured a collection of other documents marked “top secret” and “classified” which were taken by FBI agents on 8 August from his Palm Beach, Florida, estate.
The TIME issue, which included US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, was spotted by eagle-eyed Twitter users sitting among a collection of about five gold framed TIME magazine covers allegedly seized by FBI agents as evidence against the 76-year-old.
“Absolute Karma that the FBI picture of all the classified docs found in Trumps desk shows a framed Time Magazine cover that says ‘Knock knock’ and has Joe Biden & Kamala Harris in it,” wrote one Twitter user, adding: . “Bwahaaahaaa”
“The TIME magazine cover, along with Trump’s other personal items commingled with the classified, demonstrates that he was personally handling them.,” argued Asha Rangappa, a former FBI agent and attorney who added: “Thanks for highlighting key evidence of his guilt!
Another social media user meanwhile wrote: “Trump‘s meltdown is actually because they took the framed TIME magazine cover”.
According to the Justice Department court filing, FBI agents took 33 boxes containing more than 100 classified records, which were seen pictured strewn on the floor of Mr Trump’s Palm Beach home along with his collection of TIME covers.
The department submitted the picture as evidence to possibly rebut claims that anybody who handled the documents would not have known the sensitivity of the material, most of which was marked with intelligence markers.
Justice Department officials said they were forced to search Mar-a-Lago in August after previous attempts to retrieve all potential classified documents proved impossible.
Laywers for Mr Trump allegedly told FBI agents on a June visit to Mar-a-Lago that all documents taken from the White House were stored in a storage room at the estate. However, on 8 August, such documents were also found in his office, the filing argued.
Mr Trump, who previously denied claims the files were classified but has argued through his lawyers that he should be entitled to executive privilege protections, has appeared on 35 TIME magazine covers -- the fourth most of any US president, according to TIME.
