A federal agency collaborated with the Trump transition team to ship two pallets of “document boxes” related to former President Donald Trump’s presidency to his Mar-a-Lago home. This occurred a year before Special Counsel Jack Smith raided the residence in search of classified documents.
Smith indicted Trump in June 2023 for allegedly mishandling classified documents, following armed federal agents raiding Mar-a-Lago to find such documents. The General Services Administration (GSA) communicated with Trump’s team about transferring six pallets of items from Virginia to Florida, as shown in emails between the parties.
Two of the six pallets were destined for Mar-a-Lago, while the remaining four were intended for a West Palm Beach storage unit. The shipment from an Arlington, Virginia facility to Mar-a-Lago included “document boxes”. Questions remain about the duration the pallets remained in the facility and who had access to them.
NARA, the National Archives and Records Administration, was also involved in the transition, expressing frustration over the pace of Trump’s team in addressing their concerns by June 2021. NARA denied any knowledge of the contents of the pallets shipped by GSA, stating they were not involved in the move project mentioned in the emails.
The Federalist inquired whether the confiscated documents during Smith’s raid were part of the pallets shipped by GSA, with NARA responding that they were unaware of the pallet contents. Julie Kelly observed that NARA had been pressuring Trump in 2021 about government records without consulting GSA to inspect the boxes in their possession.
President Joe Biden, whose Justice Department is pursuing legal action against Trump, managed to avoid indictment in a classified documents scandal. A special counsel concluded that it would be difficult to persuade a jury that Biden knowingly committed a serious felony regarding classified documents.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.
