Trump denies wrongdoing after report he wrote to-do lists on classified documents

WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Donald Trump has denied wrongdoing after a report on Monday said that one of the former president’s long-time assistants told federal investigators he repeatedly wrote to-do lists for her on documents from the White House marked classified.

The aide, Molly Michael, told investigators that more than once she got requests or tasks from Trump written on the back of notecards that she later recognized as sensitive White House materials, ABC News reported on Monday, citing sources.

The notecards had visible classification markings used to brief Trump while he was still in office about phone calls with foreign leaders or other international matters, the news outlet said.

Michael became Trump’s executive assistant in the White House in 2018 and continued to work for him when he left office. She resigned last year, in the wake of Trump’s alleged refusal to comply with federal requests, ABC News said.

A Trump spokesperson dismissed the report as “illegal leaks” and denied wrongdoing.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has been charged along with two aides with illegally storing troves of classified documents at his personal residence and lying to federal investigators who sought to retrieve them.

Trump was charged in an indictment in June with criminal counts, including violations of the Espionage Act, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and making false statements to investigators. He has pleaded not guilty.

Trump is also under separate indictments in Washington, D.C., and Georgia over his alleged efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden and in New York over a hush-money payment he paid to a porn star. He denies wrongdoing.

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