Newly unsealed court filings on Monday in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case reveal emails exchanged between officials from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Biden White House, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding former President Donald Trump’s presidential records.
The newly unsealed filings also disclosed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) referred to its investigation into President Trump’s presidential records under the code name “[Redacted] Plasmic Echo.”
A key exhibit included with a motion to compel filed in January was an FBI case file labeled “[Redacted] PLASMIC ECHO; Mishandling of Classified or National Defense Information.”
This document, recently released to the public, outlines the findings of the initial review of documents sent by NARA to the FBI on February 24, 2022. The review revealed 106 classified documents spread across 12 out of 15 boxes, totaling 767 pages.
Last year, President Trump entered a not guilty plea to 40 counts concerning the alleged mishandling of classified documents. In January, the defense submitted a motion to compel discovery, along with various sealed exhibits, which included emails containing names and identifying information of government officials.
The defense contends that the newly revealed emails, made public on Monday, show communication between NARA officials, the Biden administration, and the DOJ concerning President Trump’s records.
They claim this suggests coordination aimed at targeting the former president dating back to 2021.
One email from NARA’s general counsel to the national archivist discussed drafting a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland concerning “missing Trump records.” Subsequent emails revealed coordination between NARA and the Biden White House counsel’s office regarding the handling of these records.
The September 1, 2021, email unveiled that NARA’s general counsel, Gary Stern, had been in contact with both the DOJ and the Biden White House “about this issue.” A follow-up email on September 30, 2021, indicates that the White House counsel’s office “is now ready to set up a call to discuss the Trump boxes.”
This email followed Mr. Stern’s email to Deputy White House Counsel Jonathan Su two days prior, where he reached out to “check back in to see when and how you want to proceed re [sic] meeting with [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], and NARA to discuss the Trump boxes?”
Moreover, the defense emphasized instances where NARA officials failed to disclose certain actions to Trump representatives, indicating bias in the investigation process.
The defense alleged that Mr. Su didn’t disclose to a Trump representative that NARA had already drafted a DOJ referral letter when contacting them to discuss access to notes “from the Trump administration relating to records handling.”
The unsealed emails also show that NARA took into consideration the Democrat-led January 6 Committee’s investigation when considering the timing of reporting to Congress on their issues of getting access to President Trump’s posts on Twitter (now X).
On Oct. 5, 2023, Mr. Stern wrote in an internal NARA email that the release of a letter to Congress “can be timed with our public release of the Trump social media records … as well as our release to the 1/6 Committee of responsive tweets on the day of January 6.”
Mr. Stern noted that NARA had “issues” getting President Trump’s “social media records” because the Trump White House didn’t “capture them through the use of third-party archiving tools.”
“I do not think that these problems are something that the AG/DOJ can deal with, but it could be appropriate to report them to Congress, especially since the January 6 Committee has specifically requested Trump’s Tweets from the day of January 6,” Mr. Stern wrote in the email.
Mr. Stern adds that the Biden White House counsel “is now also aware of this issue, and has asked that I keep them in the loop to the extent that we make any reference to the White House Office of Records Management.”
Another email shows Mr. Ferriero saying that he had run “out of patience” amid back-and-forth communications with Trump representatives regarding “missing boxes” that, according to a draft email to the attorney general, were reported as having been “possibly destroyed.”
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