Donald Trump's attorneys discovered additional classified documents in his bedroom even four months after FBI investigators searched his Mar-a-Lago estate, according to a court filing unsealed Tuesday.
The ruling from March 2023 was made by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell who oversaw special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Trump storing classified records in his Palm Beach estate in Florida. She questioned how the former president failed to notice that he had highly sensitive documents in his bedroom, a newly unsealed court ruling shows.
The FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 revealed dozens of classified documents still on the property. Judge Howell, an Obama appointee, found that additional rounds of searches uncovered even more classified materials at Trump's residence.
Judge Howell, who was chief judge of the Washington, D.C. federal district court at the time, expressed disbelief over how four classified documents could be found in Trump's private quarters months after prosecutors had issued a subpoena and the FBI had conducted a thorough search.
"Notably, no excuse is provided as to how the former president could miss the classified-marked documents found in his own bedroom at Mar-a-Lago," she said.
The documents were found in his bedroom in 2022 after Trump's attorneys told authorities in June that year that there were no classified files at his residence.
But an FBI search warrant executed at his property found over 100 classified documents — some marked "secret" and "top secret."
The unsealed ruling from 2023 shows that prosecutors presented strong evidence showing Trump knowingly kept national security documents at his home and attempted to hide them from the Justice Department, according to NBC News.
In an 87-page opinion, Judge Howell detailed the likelihood of Trump committing crimes, which allowed special counsel Smith to question Trump's attorney, Evan Corcoran, on matters usually protected by attorney-client privilege.
Judge Howell said that Trump was aware Corcoran had informed the government in June 2022 that all classified materials had been returned—a claim Trump knew was false.
Judge Howell's opinion was unsealed along with other grand jury-related documents related to the investigation into Trump for withholding classified documents after leaving office in 2021.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, released these documents after extensive negotiations with Smith's team and Trump's lawyers over redactions.
Despite the strong rebuke in the judge's opinion, Trump used it to argue for dismissing the case against him on grounds of "prosecutorial misconduct."
Trump highlighted a footnote where Judge Howell scolded prosecutor Julie Edelstein for pressing another Trump attorney, Tim Parlatore, to reveal attorney-client privileged information, and for questioning Trump's refusal to waive that privilege.
