developed evidence that government records likely were concealed and removed from the storage room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government s investigation. it goes on to state three classified documents that were not located in boxes, but rather were located in the desks in the 45 office were also sealed, end quote. the doj also included a picture of the documents seized during the fbi s search of the former president s florida estate, several of which clearly are marked top secret. in all, the filing says more than 100 unique classified documents were seized. some of the documents were so sensitive, fbi agents and doj attorneys needed additional security clearance just to review them. the doj filing reveals the fbi recovered twice as many classified documents than were returned by the trump team, casting doubt over their claim that there had been a diligent search following the grand jury subpoena in may. joining us is peter baker and ryan riley. ryan
department s investigation into former president trump. we re learning new details from an overnight doj filing in response to trump s request for an independent review of the materials that would be known as a special master following the search of mar-a-lago earlier this month. the doj argues appointing a special master, quote, is unnecessary and would significantly harm important governmental interests including national security interests. the doj points out government review teams have already finished their work and a third party reviewing the documents only would impede the ongoing criminal investigation. the filing also reveals the justice department brought a search warrant for mar-a-lago after obtaining evidence that highly classified documents were likely moved and hidden and that trump s representatives had falsely claimed all sensitive material had already been returned. quote, the government also
lot of controversy about the seizure of trump s passport. but it does suggest that trump was deeply involved in this because they were found in his personal desk and right next to his passports. there are top secret documents casually stashed in the desk drawers. what this filing from the justice department lays out is not only were the documents taken from the white house to mar-a-lago, not only were they concealed there and hidden, but then the attorneys for donald trump, that team lied to the justice department, lied to the fbi that it had given everything. yes, you came, we answered your request, here s everything. it wasn t everything. that s right. it wasn t everything. the document signed by trump s lawyer believed to be christina bobb has been redacted from the document. it says a diligent search was made and everything had been turned over. whether she knew that was untrue or if she was herself misled,
motivated. i wasn t given a reason in this case for why they won t be paying these bills, but trump is on his own when it comes to paying for his defense here. he s been raising an awful lot of money, more than $100 million off of this stuff. so there s plenty of money for him to defend himself. so peter baker, all of these new filings from the justice department seem to ratchet up the pressure on merrick garland to do something about this. many legal experts and observers we ve talked to say just on the publicly available information we have, how could you not indict the former president on this? what is the thinking on that and on the pace of the investigation inside the justice department from what you ve heard? i think you re right to point out that merrick garland has decided in effect to make the case publicly through these filings. if former president trump is going to make allegations and make untrue assertions, then the justice department rather than
kise to defend him from the investigation into the potential mishandling of classified material. joining us on that hire is meredith mcgraw from politico. tell us about this new edition to trump s legal team. chris kise is a top attorney in florida. he was the former florida solicitor general. he has argud four cases in front of the supreme court successfully. he s argued numerous cases in front of florida s supreme court. he s very well connected politically in the state of florida. he served as counsel for the transition teams for florida governor ron desantis and before that rick scott. he also served as a counsellor for charlie crist. he s something who s very well known in the state of florida and who s seen as sort of a top legal mind here. his joining the trump legal team