“The White House staff simply swept all documents from the president’s desk and other areas into boxes, where they have resided ever since,” Mr. Parla
“The White House staff simply swept all documents from the president’s desk and other areas into boxes, where they have resided ever since,” Mr. Parlatore wrote.
Last winter, after extended negotiations with the National Archives, Mr. Trump finally returned an initial trove of 15 boxes of documents, which were later found to contain classified material. That discovery prompted the archives to alert the Justice Department, which in May issued a subpoena for all classified material in Mr. Trump’s possession.
In their letter, Mr. Trump’s lawyers said the 15 boxes contained “all manner of documents from the White House,” including newspapers, magazines, notes, letters and daily schedules. The lawyers wrote that they believed the “vast majority” of classified documents were “briefings for phone calls with foreign leaders that were located near the schedule for those calls.”
The account provided by Mr. Parlatore in his letter differs in a number of respects from other accounts of how the case unfolded.
While the letter at times suggests there was not a review by intelligence officials, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did conduct a classification review, although that review was done in coordination with Justice Department lawyers.
Last August, in a letter to members of Congress, Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, announced that her office was working with the Justice Department to conduct a review of the documents. Over the subsequent months, intelligence officials pored over the materials to determine their classification and level of sensitivity. By the start of the year, the initial review was largely complete, though an assessment of the potential damage done by the removal of the documents to Mar-a-Lago had not been completed, officials said.
In June, other lawyers for Mr. Trump drafted a sworn statement saying that a “diligent search” had been conducted and that to the best of their understanding, they had turned over “any and all” remaining classified material from the White House.
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