July 6 (UPI) — Details from newly unsealed portions of the affidavit used to secure a search warrant for classified documents at former president Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida showed the effort he allegedly tried to hide documents from federal investigators.
The less redacted version of the affidavit released Wednesday revealed how officials from the Justice Department became more concerned about the documents after viewing security cameras they received from Trump’s company.
The video showed Trump employee Walt Nauta moving boxes out of a storage space that Trump had previously said housed classified documents. The footage showed Nauta removing 64 boxes but only returning about 30.
“[T]he current location of the boxes that were removed from the storage room area but not returned to is unknown,” the affidavit said.
Prosecutors accused Trump of purposely ignoring a May 2022 subpoena requiring him to return the documents and then taking steps to hide the documents from investigators.
The new release, though, did not disclose all the reasons that federal prosecutors thought Trump had confidential documents.
Last month, Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury on 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Special counsel Jack Smith has overseen the investigation by the U.S. Justice Department since his appointment last fall.
The investigation focused on Trump’s handling of more than 100 classified security documents after his term in the White House ended along with his effort to obstruct investigators in taking those documents back.
Nauta faces six counts, which include several obstruction and concealment-related charges stemming from the alleged conduct. Nauta is expected to be arraigned on Thursday after his travel was interrupted last month because of weather.
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