Trump White House senior adviser Jared Kushner on Wednesday defended the former president for keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home after leaving office, saying Trump “governed in a very peculiar way.”
“I’m not familiar with what was in the boxes, but I think President Trump, you know, he governed in a very peculiar way, and he — when he had his documents, I’m assuming he did what he thought was appropriate,” Kushner said on FOX News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” when asked whether Trump made a mistake by taking the material to his Palm Beach, Fla., resort.
Earlier this year and during the recent FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, the Justice Department (DOJ) had reportedly recovered hundreds of classified materials from the former president’s residence.
Keeping the records past the end of his presidential term goes against the Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation and transfer of the documents to the National Archives.
The National Archives announced Tuesday that the Justice Department (DOJ) had recovered at least 100 classified documents back in January, and New York Times reporting shows more than 300 documents have been recovered total since Trump left office.
The FBI reportedly seized 11 boxes of classified material from Mar-a-Lago when it executed a search warrant there earlier this month. The newly unsealed warrant indicates Trump is under investigation for possible violations of the Espionage Act and other laws in relation to the documents.
“Well, the DOJ, again, they have unfettered resources. They have unfettered power, right? And so, they’ve been trying to get Trump now for six years,” Kushner said Wednesday.
The ex-Trump administration official is the former president’s son-in-law, Ivanka Trump’s husband, and the author of a newly-released memoir, “Breaking History.”
“I write about this a lot in my book, what it was like being through what I call investigation number one, where they were accusing us of colluding with Russia, which was totally crazy. We knew it, but it still took us two years to go through it,” Kushner said.
“And what you’re seeing here in terms of how it’s playing out is a very similar thing where, you know, people have lost faith in the FBI and the Department of Justice.”
The book, which details Kushner’s experience with Trump’s campaign and administration, got a scathing review from The New York Times.