Trump Hasn’t Returned All Documents, DOJ Officials Believe

The communication from Jay Bratt, chief of the Division of Justice’s counterintelligence and export-control part, was the newest indication that the federal government remains to be searching for some information it believes Mr. Trump ought to have relinquished on the finish of his administration.

The Nationwide Archives and Information Administration instructed Congress late final month that it hadn’t recovered the entire presidential information that have been speculated to be turned over, including that there was “no straightforward approach to set up absolute accountability.”

The Justice Division declined to touch upon Mr. Bratt’s outreach, which was reported earlier by the New York Instances. Mr. Trump’s spokesman, Taylor Budowich, in an announcement didn’t tackle the substance of the communication between the federal government and the previous president’s attorneys.

Mr. Budowich mentioned a “weaponized Division of Justice and the politicized FBI are spending thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of American tax {dollars} to perpetuate witch hunt after witch hunt.”

The FBI seized roughly 11,000 paperwork throughout its Aug. 8 search of Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago dwelling in Florida, a rare transfer that got here after Mr. Trump’s group failed handy over the entire materials throughout a number of less-invasive makes an attempt to retrieve it earlier this 12 months.

It couldn’t be decided what, if something, law-enforcement officers deliberate to do to retrieve the lacking data, nor was it clear what the Justice Division believes it has but to get better.

The Justice Division’s efforts to research paperwork seized at Mr. Trump’s Florida property have gotten slowed down in a authorized battle between the previous president and the federal authorities. A federal decide final month appointed a retired decide, referred to as a particular grasp, to overview independently the paperwork the FBI seized.

The division lately scored a set of wins when an appeals courtroom mentioned it might resume reviewing roughly 100 paperwork marked as labeled, and later agreed to fast-track its attraction of a broader ruling, making an attempt to problem U.S. District Choose Aileen Cannon’s resolution to halt the legal investigation for months so the particular grasp might overview proof.

Mr. Trump’s group this week requested the Supreme Courtroom to intervene and supply the particular grasp with the delicate paperwork. Justice

Clarence Thomas,

who obtained the petition, gave the Justice Division every week to file a short in response.

In one of many containers present in Mr. Trump’s workplace at Mar-a-Lago, 99 newspaper and journal clips dated from 2017 and 2018 have been held alongside seven paperwork marked as high secret, 15 paperwork marked as secret, 43 empty folders marked as labeled and 28 empty folders labeled “Return to Workers Secretary/Miliary [sic] Aide,” amongst different gadgets, the receipt exhibits.

One other 5 empty folders with labeled banners have been discovered within the storage room, in line with the checklist. It couldn’t be decided whether or not the information initially held in any folders marked labeled have been discovered elsewhere within the search or have been in any other case accounted for.

Write to Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com and Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com