Special counsel defends Mar-a-Lago search of ‘cluttered collection’ of documents

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team fired back at arguments from former President Trump seeking to toss his documents case on the basis that some of the records were shuffled during the search, noting their storage among a “cluttered collection of keepsakes” at Mar-a-Lago.

“Trump personally chose to keep documents containing some of the nation’s most highly guarded secrets in cardboard boxes along with a collection of other personally chosen keepsakes,” prosecutors wrote in a late Monday filing, noting that the documents were filed among “newspapers, thank you notes, Christmas ornaments, magazines, clothing, and photographs of himself and others.”

“Against this backdrop of the haphazard manner in which Trump chose to maintain his boxes, he now claims that the precise order of the items within the boxes when they left the White House was critical to his defense.”

Trump’s team has attacked the special counsel for acknowledging the contents of the boxes may have shifted during transportation and that their precise order was not maintained.

Monday’s filing articulates a detailed breakdown of how FBI agents undertook the search, with prosecutors arguing they maintained “box-to-box integrity.”

“The FBI agents who conducted the search did so professionally, thoroughly, and carefully under challenging circumstances, particularly given the cluttered state of the boxes and the substantial volume of highly classified documents Trump had retained,” the filing states.

The filing also includes a few new photos of the boxes not included in the original indictment, including those taken by co-defendant Walt Nauta showing boxes tipped on their sides, their contents spilling out onto the floor.

It also criticizes Trump for arguing that the “precise order” of the documents is critical to his defense, noting he cannot cite another case in which such details have been used to argue evidence has been spoiled.

“Nothing has been lost, much less destroyed, and there has been no bad faith,” prosecutors wrote.