Possible Trouble for Trump in Separate Case

'Washington Post' reports obstruction charges over classified documents are possible
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 3, 2023 8:58 AM CDT
As One Trump Case Comes to a Head, Another Rumbles
Former President Donald Trump in a 2022 photo.   (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

Tuesday is a big day in Trump World, with the former president expected to be arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom on charges related to hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. But the Washington Post is out with a story that serves as a reminder of a separate legal headache he faces. The story suggests that federal investigators have found new evidence that could lead to charges over Trump's keeping of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The charges would not be about whether Trump improperly took the documents in the first place but whether he obstructed federal efforts to get them back. Two key points:

  • "Investigators now suspect, based on witness statements, security camera footage, and other documentary evidence, that boxes including classified material were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area after the subpoena was served, and that Trump personally examined at least some of those boxes," per the story.
  • The newspaper's sources say evidence suggests Trump "ignored requests from multiple advisers to return the documents to the archives over a period of a year, that he asked advisers and lawyers to release false statements claiming he had returned all documents, and that he grew angry after being subpoenaed for the documents."
  • In response: A Trump spokesman says the "witch-hunts against President Trump have no basis in facts or law." On the far-right site Gateway Pundit, a post on all this concludes, "Biden’s Justice Department has nothing on Trump so they are going to try to get him on ‘obstruction’ charges."
(More Donald Trump stories.)

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