Newly resurfaced video from May 2021 shows former President Donald Trump loading a private jet with several boxes just days before he was reportedly first told about the missing documents.
The video, shot on May 8, 2021, shows the former president boarding a plane from Florida to his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. In the two-minute clip, Trump is seen climbing aboard before a series of helpers carry four boxes from multiple SUVs and load them onto the jet.
The footage was shot just two days after he was first informed of missing documents by the National Archives and Records Administration, according to a Washington Post timeline. It is not known what was in the boxes carried onto the plane or if they are related to the investigation into whether Trump violated the Espionage Act by taking classified documents after he left the White House.
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Video from May 8, 2021 shows Trump boarding a jet from Florida to Bedminster with multiple boxes bearing a strong resemblance to boxes of top secret materials found at Mar-a-Lago. On May 6, NARA had contacted Trump’s team saying documents were missing and may be at Mar-a-Lago. pic.twitter.com/03aDQBcS9y
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“We know things are very chaotic, as they always are in the course of a one-term transition,” Gary Stern, the National Archives and Records Administration’s chief counsel, wrote in a letter to Trump’s legal team two days before the video was shot. “But it is absolutely necessary that we obtain and account for all presidential records.”
Over the next several months, the National Archives continued to contact Trump to return missing records, which he resisted doing.
The National Archives then gathered more than 150 documents with classified markings after a search in January, according to the New York Times. The National Archives later referred the matter to the Justice Department, which then opened an investigation. After that, the DOJ visited Trump’s Florida residence in June and collected another batch of documents that contained sensitive national security information.
Amid concerns about the possibility of more classified materials at the resort, Reinhart authorized the department to execute a search warrant on Aug. 5, leading officials to collect another 26 boxes of documents. It was later revealed that the former president was being investigated over obstruction of justice and whether he violated the Espionage Act, according to the warrant.
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Trump has denounced the DOJ for its latest seizure, arguing he declassified the materials he took with him and denying any wrongdoing. The former president later unveiled a lawsuit seeking to halt the department’s investigation until a third-party attorney could be appointed to review the materials.
A federal judge sided with Trump last week, ruling the DOJ cannot continue reviewing the documents until a special master looks at the materials to see if they are protected by attorney-client or executive privileges. The DOJ has appealed the decision.
