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Former President Donald Trump's office received a grand jury subpoena this spring for classified documents he allegedly took from the White House when he left office in 2021, a source close to Trump told Fox News, saying the former president cooperated with the subpoena by turning over documents to the FBI.
According to the source, a subpoena was issued to a "custodian of the president," and was related to the materials that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) was trying to collect after claiming Trump improperly took those classified records with him from Washington to Mar-a-Lago.
The source close to Trump told Fox News that Trump has been cooperating in the investigation into the NARA records for a year.
Former President Donald Trump in New York City following the FBI raid at his Mar-a-Lago home. (Felipe Ramales/Fox News Digital)
On June 3, the FBI visited Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the requested documents in the subpoena, which Trump complied with, the source told Fox News.
Those investigators toured the area of the Florida resort where some documents were stored, then briefly viewed and took custody of a small amount of potentially sensitive material. Separate sources told Fox News that federal investigators had spoken with at least one person who relayed the possibility of more sensitive national security material in that storage room and other areas of the property.
FBI officials, that day, asked to see a storage facility where the records were located. The FBI asked that staff put a lock on the storage room, which they later did.
This source said Trump and his staff were, and are, committed to being in compliance with the Presidential Records Act, which requires presidential administrations to preserve certain documents.
Trump received that subpoena two months prior to the FBI’s unprecedented raid on a former president of the United States’ private residence, which took place early Monday morning.
The source questioned whether the federal magistrate judge who signed off on the warrant for the FBI's raid of Mar-a-Lago on Monday was aware of Trump's "past compliance with the subpoena," adding that, if the FBI was looking for additional documents, another subpoena could have been issued, as Trump and his team were "cooperative" and turned over documents and records responsive to the subpoena issued in the spring.
Former President Donald Trump in New York City following the FBI raid at his Mar-a-Lago home. (Felipe Ramales / Fox News Digital)
Sources also told Fox News that Trump’s staff has been interviewed by the FBI with regard to the NARA investigation over the last several months.
The FBI interviewed Trump aides, including White House staff who moved boxes from the White House, administrative staff and others who helped to organize Trump’s departure from the Oval Office, and questioned those individuals on what they were involved in moving.
"The reality is, you talk to anyone part of an administration and leaving the White House and they will tell you it is always a chaotic thing," the source said, adding that it is "not surprising" records "came that should have stayed," and it is "not unusual for NARA and former administration officials to be in communications about documents and whether or not they should have left the White House or stayed behind."
Investigators also spoke to at least one witness about the existence of sensitive material remaining in the Mar-a-Lago basement. Those sources would not characterize that person as an "informant" or the information received as a "tip."
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington on Jan. 21, 2022. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Fox News has also learned that a separate subpoena was later issued seeking information about surveillance cameras to determine who may have had access to the storage room.
It is unclear what developed in recent weeks for investigators to move for more documents, to Monday's FBI search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, but some sources said communications between both sides had become increasingly strained.
Sources close to the former president, though, maintain they were cooperating with the investigation and with all document requests.
Meanwhile, another source familiar with the raid told Fox News the warrant for the raid Monday was related to the NARA effort to collect records and materials the former president took with him from Washington, to Mar-a-Lago.
"There is no need for any of this," the source said, adding the FBI "wouldn’t let the attorneys come in to watch the raid. They told them to leave."
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