(Luis M. Alvarez/AP photo)
President Donald Trump appeared to retain highly classified government documents because they were tied to his business interests, according to newly released records from former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation.
Evidence gathered by Smith’s team suggests the president took top-secret materials “pertinent to his business interests” when he left the White House at the end of his first term in January 2021, identifying what investigators viewed as a potential motive for holding onto them after his presidency.
A January 2023 memo from Smith’s office, seen by MS NOW’s Carol Leonnig and Jacqueline Alemany, noted: “Trump possessed classified documents pertinent to his business interests — establishing a motive for retaining them. We must have those documents.”
The records, also cited by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), indicate Trump hoarded some of the most sensitive files in government, including material so restricted that only six people were authorized to review it. Investigators also found evidence that Trump showed a classified map to passengers aboard a private plane, including future Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
The disclosures shed new light on one of the central questions of the case, why Trump allegedly took hundreds of pages of classified material and failed to return them when subpoenaed. An FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago property in August 2022 uncovered additional documents after his legal team had said all materials had been handed back.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Raskin said the documents point to a broader risk to national security, writing: “These new disclosures suggest that Donald Trump stole documents so sensitive that only six people in the entire U.S. government had access to them, that the documents President Trump stole pertained to his business interests.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson rejected the claims when asked about them by the network, saying: “It’s pathetic that Democrats with zero credibility like Jamie Raskin are still clinging to deranged Jack Smith and his lies in 2026.”
The revelations come despite legal efforts that have blocked the full release of Smith’s findings into the classified documents case.
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