Alex Cannon, a Trump lawyer, had facilitated the January transfer of 15 boxes of presidential records from Mar-a-Lago to the National Archives, after archive officials scrambled for more than a year to retrieve “all the original presidential records”, which they are required by law to do. After months of stonewalling by Trump officials, archive officials have threatened to implicate the Justice Department or Congress.
Trump himself eventually packed up the boxes which were returned in January, people familiar with the matter said. The former president seemed determined in February to declare that all documents sought by the archives had been turned over, said the people who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal conversations. .
Around the same time the Washington Post reported that the archives had retrieved documents from Mar-a-Lago, the people said, Trump asked his team to release a statement he dictated. The statement said Trump returned “everything” the records had requested. Trump asked Cannon to send a similar message to archive officials, the people said. In addition, the former president told aides that the documents in the boxes were “newspaper clippings” and were not relevant to the archives, two of those people said, and complained that the agency responsible for keeping track of government records was fastidious about securing documents. from his Florida club.
But Cannon, a former lawyer for the Trump Organization who worked for the campaign and for Trump after the presidency, told Trump he could not tell the archives that all of the material requested had been returned. He tell others he was unsure if any other documents were still at the club and would be uncomfortable making such a claim, people familiar with the matter said. Other Trump advisers also encouraged Cannon not to make such a definitive statement, people familiar with the matter said.
The Feb. 7 statement dictated by Trump was never released due to concerns from some members of his team that it was not accurate, people familiar with the matter said. Another statement released three days later said Trump had donated boxes of documents to the archives in a “friendly” manner. He did not say that all the material had been handed over.
“The documents were delivered easily and without conflict and on a very friendly basis, which is different from the accounts written by the Fake News Media,” the February 10 statement said, which came the same day The Washington Post reported that classified material was found in the 15 boxes.
A Trump spokesperson did not respond to specific questions for this article, instead issuing a statement saying the Justice Department “has no greater ally than the Bezos-subsidized Washington Post, which seems to serve only as a partisan microphone for leakers and liars buried deep within the bowels of the US government. President Trump remains committed to defending the Constitution and the office of the Presidency, ensuring America’s integrity for generations to come. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Cannon did not respond to a detailed email seeking comment on his interactions with Trump and the archives.
Whether Trump — or anyone else — knew there was additional government equipment at Mar-a-Lago after the 15 boxes returned became a central question in the Department of Justice’s investigation. Justice.
Attempts to get Trump’s representatives to falsely state that he had no presidential records in his possession could serve as evidence that he was intentionally and knowingly withholding documents. And if Trump continues to pressure his aides to make false statements even after learning that the Justice Department was involved in the recovery of the documents, authorities may view such efforts as an attempt to obstruct their investigation. .
Even as Trump sought to convey that he had fully complied with the records request, Cannon appears to have delivered a different message to agency officials.
On February 8, according to people familiar with the matter, records attorney Gary Stern told his colleagues at the agency that he had spoken with Cannon and that Cannon said he did not know if there were more relevant documents in Trump’s possession. Stern had asked the Trump team to certify that all relevant documents had been returned, and privately feared they had not, these people said.
Months earlier, at the end of 2021, when the archives sought to obtain the return of specific presidential documents, Cannon had said Stern there may be more documents in Trump’s possession than what he passed on to the agency, but was somehow unaware of. Cannon also told Stern that he wasn’t sure where all the documents were, or what they were, according to people familiar with the conversations.
According to an account given to Stern’s colleagues, Stern also asked Trump’s attorney Pat Philbin if there were more documents, the people said. Philbin declined through a spokesperson to comment for this article.
Cannon’s refusal to declare that everything had been returned soured his relationship with Trump, people familiar with the matter said. Cannon, who had worked for the Trump Organization since 2015, was quickly excluded from discussions related to the documents, some people said, because Trump relied on more pugilist advisers.
Another issue of concern to Cannon and others was whether any of the items in the returned boxes could be classified, people familiar with the matter said. Cannon did not have a security clearance and did not examine the boxes himself, one of the people said. He had told other aides not to examine the boxes either, saying it might get them in trouble, those people said.
A total of 184 classified documents were found in the returned boxes, officials said.
Trump’s team then returned 38 additional classified documents to the Justice Department in June in response to the May 11 grand jury subpoena, which was seeking any documents still at Mar-a-Lago that bore classified markings.
In August, believing that there was still more classified material at Mar-a-Lago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained a warrant to search the property and confiscated over 27 additional boxes of material. Officers recovered 11 sets of classified documents during their search, totaling approximately 100 documents. Some of them contained well-kept US government secrets, people familiar with the matter said, including information about a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities.
In response to the May subpoena, other Trump aides agreed to say that all of the documents sought had been returned. Evan Corcoran, who replaced Cannon, told the Justice Department he was turning over all relevant documents, people familiar with the matter said. Christina Bobb, another attorney for Trump, signed a document saying she had been advised that Trump’s team had turned over all relevant documents after a diligent search.
The National Archives preserves all presidential records under the Presidential Records Act, which states that “all records created or received by the president in the performance of his constitutional, statutory, or ceremonial duties are the property of the United States government. United and will be managed by NARA. at the end of administration.
Rosalind S. Helderman and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.
