fbi search of former president donald trump s home. now we are learning more about the events leading up to that search. two sources telling cnn, in june a trump lawyer signed a letter saying all documents marked as classified had been given back. that s what they re saying. but monday s search revealed mar-a-lago was still harboring top secrets, removing 11 sets of top secret gdocuments. we now know the justice department has probable cause to investigate three possible federal crimes, violations of the espionage act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records. as of now no one has been charged with a crime. trump s first line of defense was to suggest that the fbi may have planted evidence while in his home. nobody has presented any evidence of that. plan b involved claiming that trump had declassified documents before the fbi seized them that the espionage act does not hinge on whether documents are classified. so the latest move is to blame the gov
that s not on the president that s on the national archives to sort that material out. what do you make of that, preet? they re pointing the finger at everybody but themselves, obviously. that s standard operating procedure for the former president and the people around him. on the notion they declassify this information before he left the white house and before the documents were transported to mar-a-lago, interesting point. where s the evidence of that? where s the evidence he followed the protocols and the procedures for declassifying information. where s the evidence that the documents noted at classified that they change the classification on those documents. the documents are designated as such and when there s appropriate declassification. those designations are crossed out and new designations are put in their place so people know if they can look at the documents, if they can be transported, read at home, et cetera, et cetera. on the issue of whether or not donald trump an
republican reaction, how aggressive this tactic was, going to a federal judge and seeking a search warrant, it sounds like, as the picture is emerging more clearly that the department of justice and fbi was fairly sew list tow and accommodating with respect to the documents and the former president and respectful. some documents were turned over in 15 boxes back in january. there was a visit to mar-a-lago, there was a subpoena issued, statements were made, apparently in writing and signed by a lawyer for the president, former president. saying these documents had been turned over and it turns out they were not. so at some point there s an end and a limit to the patience of officials responsible for protecting confidential and classified data and information the president should know about. the irony here is the former president said repeatedly during his campaign in 2015, 2016, and again as president, that he was going to enforce the laws related to confidential and classified informat
on whether documents are classified. so the latest move is to blame the government agency for moving boxes of classified info to mar-a-lago claiming that s not on the president. that s their quote. caitlyn, joins me now. what new information do we have about the communication trump s legal team had with the justice department? this is a new development. reporter: that s right, jim. just today we are learning more about that timeline of what led up to the search and why it was so necessary for the justice department to go in there monday at mar-a-lago. so evan perez, caitlyn collins and sarah murray were able to confirm a the new york times today that a lawyer back in june had asserted in writing there was no more classified information stored at the mar-a-lago resort. of course, there were at least 11 places or sets of classified
fbi search of former president donald trump s home. now we are learning more about the events leading up to that search. two sources telling cnn, in june a trump lawyer signed a letter saying all documents marked as classified had been given back. that s what they re saying. but monday s search revealed mar-a-lago was still harboring top secrets, removing 11 sets of top secret gdocuments. we now know the justice department has probable cause to investigate three possible federal crimes, violations of the espionage act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records. as of now no one has been charged with a crime. trump s first line of defense was to suggest that the fbi may have planted evidence while in his home. nobody has presented any evidence of that. plan b involved claiming that trump had declassified documents before the fbi seized them that the espionage act does not hinge