The Department of Justice has reportedly taken steps to launch an investigation into ex-President Donald Trump’s removal of boxes of presidential records from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Some of the boxes of documents subject to the probe were labeled ‘top secret’, sources with knowledge on the matter told the on Thursday.
It is unclear whether Justice Department officials have already started looking at the records or seeking interviews with individuals believed to be involved in improperly removing them from the White House. The probe is in the very early stages, sources said.
The report comes as House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney accused the Justice Department of ‘interfering’ with the panel’s investigation by stopping the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) from providing an inventory on the 15 recovered boxes.
Maloney in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday asked the Justice Department to explain why it was blocking the committee’s request for the detailed inventory of the documents.
‘The Committee does not wish to interfere in any manner with any potential or ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice,’ Maloney wrote.
‘However, the Committee has not received any explanation as to why the Department is preventing NARA from providing information to the Committee that relates to compliance with the (Presidential Records Act), including unclassified information describing the contents of the 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago.’
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