Donald Trump’s claim that he “didn’t have to” hand over classified documents that were being sought under federal subpoena has been leaped upon as proof he is admitting wrongdoing.
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In a Fox News town hall with Laura Ingraham, Trump was asked why he didn’t save himself “a lot of trouble” by returning the sensitive and top secret materials the government had asked for, instead of retaining them at his Mar-a-Lago—resulting in the FBI search at his Florida home in August 2022.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 federal charges under Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation over allegations he illegally hoarded classified materials after he left office in January 2021, and then obstructed a federal attempt to retrieve them.
In response to Ingraham’s question, Trump claimed that he did not need to hand over the documents that the federal government had subpoenaed, and also suggested they were safe at his Mar-a-Lago resort, unlike the sensitive materials discovered at President Joe Biden’s Delaware home.
“First of all, I didn’t have to hand them over. But second of all I would have done that, we were talking, and then all of a sudden they raided Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said.
“They said could you put an extra lock on the door, we showed them where they were, unlike being under a Corvette and a little garage with the door open all the time. We were surrounded all the time by many secret service agents, we had secret service all over Mar-a-Lago, you couldn’t take anything out.”
A number of social media users have now suggested that Trump’s claim that he “didn’t have to” return the classified documents could be used by Smith’s team as evidence against the former president at his trial, which is currently scheduled to begin in May.
Bradley P. Moss, a lawyer who specializes in national security, posted on X, formerly Twitter, sharing a clip of Trump’s remarks alongside the words: “Smith: Your Honor, the Government introduces Exhibit ‘1’ for the record. [Judge Aileen] Cannon: Exhibit is admitted. Smith: Your Honor, the Government rests.”
Allison Gill, who posts on X, using the account for the Mueller, She Wrote podcast, added: “Oh heyyyyy the Justice Department” while sharing Trump’s comments.
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Joanne Carducci, better known as the popular political social media account JoJo from Jerz, said: “So, we’re just supposed to what, forget that he originally claimed the documents he says he knew he had and was allowed to keep, were ‘planted by the FBI.'”
Trump’s legal team has been contacted for comment via email.
The National Archives first informed Trump’s legal team in May 2021 that some White House materials had not been handed back to the government as required when a president leaves office.
In January 2022, 15 boxes of Trump-era presidential records and other sensitive material were returned to the National Archives. A subpoena was then issued in May 2022 that required Trump to hand back all classified materials he still had in his possession.
In June 2022, the FBI arranged to attend Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the sought-after materials, where Trump’s legal team are alleged to have “explicitly prohibited” federal agents from looking inside a storage room at the resort.
In August 2022 the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and seized more than 100 classified and top secret documents, including some found in the storage room.
Trump is also alleged to have ordered his two co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, to move boxes of classified documents around Mar-a-Lago before the FBI came to retrieve them, and of conspiring to delete security footage that had been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors. Nauta and de Oliveira have pleaded not guilty to all the charges against them in the federal classified documents case.
Trump has made several other disputed claims while denying all wrongdoing in the case against him, including that he declassified all the materials found at his Mar-a-Lago resort before he left office.
