One of Donald Trump’s associates told FBI agents that the former president had ordered boxes of documents to be moved in Mar-a-Lago before federal agents searched the property, according to a source familiar with the case.
The source also told NBC News that the FBI obtained security videos showing people removing boxes from a storage room at Trump’s Florida estate.
The Washington Post reported first the employee’s account on Wednesday.
When reached by NBC News, the FBI and Justice Department declined to comment.
The employee’s account offers new details about Trump’s actions before FBI agents executed a search warrant on Aug. 8 to retrieve classified material from Mar-a-Lago.
In response to the Washington Post report, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich accused the Biden administration of arming law enforcement.
“The Biden administration has armed law enforcement and fabricated a Document Hoax in a desperate attempt to maintain political power,” Budowich said in a statement to NBC News. “Every other president has been given time and respect regarding document management, as the president has ultimate authority to categorize records and what materials to classify.”
The disclosure about the witness report comes just days after NBC News first reported that Trump attorney Christina Bobb spoke with federal investigators last week and named two other Trump attorneys involved in the case.
Sources previously told NBC News that Bobb, Trump’s then-custodian, had signed a letter in June confirming that Trump complied with a grand jury subpoena in May and was no longer in possession of a trove of documents with classification markings on them. Mar-a-Lago.
But the witness’s story suggests the boxes were moved to Trump’s private residence in Mar-a-Lago after the subpoena was issued.
Trump has publicly insinuated without evidence that federal agents planted evidence during their search, which the Justice Department unearthed 100 classified, classified, and top-secret documents, as well as thousands of other government documents.
Kristen Welker contributed.