Additional materials with classification markings were found during searches at former President Donald Trump’s properties, a lawyer said on Feb. 12.
“We conducted a search back in December, which is where we found these documents. And we turned them over immediately,” Timothy Parlatore, the lawyer, said during an appearance on CNN.
The number of materials was not specified.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We have gone through, we have tried work with the DOJ, we have tried to do searches of all the relevant places. And anytime we’ve found anything, we’ve immediately turned it over,” Parlatore added.
DOJ personnel found roughly 100 materials marked classified at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, a Florida resort, while executing a search warrant in 2022.
Trump is under investigation for possibly violating federal laws in his handling of sensitive documents.
The former president has alleged he declassified all the materials in question before leaving office.
Materials with classification markings have also been located at the homes of President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence in recent months.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, has appointed separate special counsels to investigate whether laws were broken in the Trump and Biden cases.
Parlatore said that the White House “does not have proper procedures for handling classified information,” placing the blame on a lack of procedures when staffers pack up materials and ship them to the homes of outgoing administration officials.
Parlatore confirmed that scans of documents marked classified were located on a laptop computer held by an aide for the Save America political action committee. He said the person is also an aide to Trump.
As part of her job, the aide scanned a box with thousands of documents, primarily daily schedules from Trump’s time in office, so the schedules would be easier to search through for those working on projects such as speeches and biographies. Just a handful of pages had classification markings on the bottom. The aide did not see those initially, according to Parlatore.
Parlatore also said that Trump had been using an empty folder once used to hold classified materials as a way to cut down on the light from a bedside phone.
“He has one of those landline telephones next to his bed, and it has a blue light on it, and it keeps him up at night,” Parlatore said. “So he took the manila folder and he put it over it so that it would keep the light down so he could sleep at night.”
“Now the president has to find a different way to keep the blue light out of his eyes,” he said.
A similar folder is on display at the bar at Trump Tower.
The folder is “essentially … a piece of stationary” because it no longer holds classified materials, Parlatore said. The president did not take the materials it once held, he said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence was reportedly subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump for possible crimes, including obstruction. Parlatore did not dispute the reports; Pence’s team declined to comment on them.
Asked if Trump had instructed Pence to assert privilege, Parlatore said the former president’s team has been instructing any witness going before a grand jury to assert privilege on questions that call for information that is protected by privilege.
“We don’t want to create a precedent where DOJ can run roughshod over privilege because it’s a new administration,” Parlatore said.
Smith has not commented on the probe since it started, though leaked information about the investigation has regularly appeared in the media.
Smith said when he was appointed that he intended to conduct the investigations “independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice.”
Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said he was confused by the situations that have unfolded with Trump, Biden, and Pence.
“We don’t understand how this could be happening. We don’t understand how all three could have been so lackadaisical about this,” Turner, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN on Sunday.
Classified materials “are not to be taken lightly,” Turner said. “And we’re just amazed as people keep finding them stuffed in the strangest places, like behind Biden’s Corvette.”
Materials with classification markings were discovered in recent months at one of Biden’s homes in Delaware; at Biden’s former offices in Washington; and at Pence’s home in Indiana.
FBI agents have since gone to each location to conduct a review. The searches have aimed to uncover any other documents with classification materials as well as any materials that may fall under the Presidential Records Act.