Former White House officials disagreed with Donald Trump's explanation of how he came to acquire thousands of pages of presidential records, the latest filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith said.
Those officials include a former national security adviser and former White House attorneys and chiefs of staff—none of whom said they had any recollection of Trump designating presidential records as personal.
Trump's claim that he designated presidential files as personal before leaving the White House is a fundamental part of his defense in the classified documents case he faces in Florida.
Smith wrote in the filing: "During its exhaustive investigation, the Government interviewed Trump's own PRA [Presidential Records Act] representatives and numerous high-ranking officials from the White House—Chiefs of Staff, White House Counsel and senior members of the White House Counsel's Office, a National Security Advisor, and senior members of National Security Council.
"Not a single one had heard Trump say that he was designating records as personal or that, at the time he caused the transfer of boxes to Mar-a-Lago, he believed that his removal of records amounted to designating them as personal under the PRA. To the contrary, every witness who was asked this question had never heard such a thing."
Trump is accused of illegally retaining classified documents, hoarding them at his Mar-a-Lago resort and obstructing federal officials' attempts to retrieve them.
Newsweek contacted Trump's attorney for comment by email.
Smith's filing was in response to a March 18 order by Judge Aileen Cannon.
In the order, Cannon asked prosecutors and Trump's lawyer to "engage with" her two prospective jury instructions about what it means to have "unauthorized possession" of classified documents, per the wording of the charges against Trump.
Her proposed instructions appear to suggest to the jury that they are permitted to consider the classified documents to be Trump's personal items.
Smith's reply rejects any suggestion that Trump was legally permitted to designate the presidential records as personal. It also rejects claims that Trump told White House officials that he had intended to do so.
Prosecutors have long fought any suggestion that Trump was legally allowed to declare classified documents at his personal belongings and have said in previous court filings that such an interpretation of the Presidential Records Act is unlawful.
Under the act, which was implemented in the wake of President Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal, all presidential documents must be sent to the National Archives and Records Administration when a commander in chief leaves office, as the documents belong to the federal government.
If an outgoing president wishes to have their official documents publicly presented, such as in a library, they must seek permission from NARA, and the materials must remain in NARA's custody.
Trump's classified documents trial is scheduled for May 20, but Cannon is expected to postpone the start of proceedings in a future decision.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more