FEDs cites obstruction of probe of docs at Trump estate

The Justice Department said Tuesday it had uncovered efforts to obstruct its investigation into the discovery of classified documents at former President Donald Trumps Florida estate, saying “government records were likely concealed and removed” from a storage room at the property.

The assertion was made in a court filing Tuesday night that lays out the most detailed chronology to date of interactions between Justice Department officials and Trump representatives over the presence of the documents at MaraLago.

The department says Trump’s lawyers told them in June that all the records that had come from the White House were stored in one location — a MaraLago storage room — and that “there were no other records stored in any private office space or other location at the Premises and that all available boxes were searched.”

In their search earlier this month, however, agents found classified documents both in the storage room as well as in the former president’s office including three classified documents found not in boxes, but in office desks.

The filing responds to a request from the Trump legal team for a special master to review the documents seized during the Aug. 8 search of MaraLago. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is set to hear arguments on the matter.

Trumps lawyers last week asked for the appointment of a special master whod be tasked with reviewing the records taken and setting aside documents protected by claims of legal privilege. Cannon on Saturday said it was her “preliminary intent” to appoint such a person but also gave the Justice Department an opportunity to respond.On Monday, the department said it had already completed its review of potentially privileged documents and identified a “limited set of materials that potentially contain attorneyclient privileged information.”

In a separate development, the Trump legal team has grown with the addition of another attorney. Chris Kise, Floridas former solicitor general, has joined the team of lawyers representing Trump, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss the move by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Kise did not return messages seeking comment.