Donald Trump's legal team has turned over a folder with classified markings to US federal agents, multiple sources familiar with the matter told US media. It is unclear what type of classified material the folder contained or what was inside.
According to the sources, a separate document with classified markings and a laptop belonging to a current aide of the ex-president were also handed over to investigators in addition to the folder.
The classified files were allegedly found last month as the former president's team was searching through additional boxes amid the Department of Justice's ongoing efforts to have Trump's legal team verify that the ex-POTUS no longer had top-secret documents in his possession.
12 December 2022, 16:19 GMT
The latest batch is said to have been located in the Mar-a-Lago complex and not in a storage facility within the complex where classified documents were stored before being seized during an FBI raid in August 2022.
A spokesperson for Trump has called the ongoing DoJ probe "nothing more than a targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump, concocted to try and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House." They also described it as a "fake hoax".
"Just like all the other fake hoaxes thrown at President Trump, this corrupt effort will also fail. The weaponized Department of Injustice [sic] has shown no regard for common decency and key rules that govern the legal system," the spokesperson added.
The news comes as the incumbent US president, Joe Biden, is being investigated for potential mishandling of classified files after he left the vice presidency. Several batches of classified documents were discovered at his former office at the Penn Biden Center from his time as vice president under Barack Obama, as well as at his Delaware home.