Biden's DOJ claims to have evidence of 'obstruction' in Mar-a-Lago docs case

The Justice Department along with FBI investigators have reportedly gathered new evidence relating to possible obstruction by former President Donald Trump in the investigation into classified documents discovered at his Mar-a-Lago home following a raid by federal authorities in August.

People familiar with the matter revealed the gathering of new evidence to the Washington Post, adding that the revelation comes as "investigators have used emails and text messages from a former Trump aide to help understand key moments last year," the outlet reported.

The new details show how special counsel Jack Smith has focused his investigation on the obstruction elements of the case, as opposed to anything incriminating found in the seized documents.

The revelation of a new angle of inquiry comes as Trump is set to be arraigned on Tuesday in connection to alleged payments made by his former counsel Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels in what has been called "hush money payments." Trump’s team has denied paying this money, noting that Cohen, who paid with his own money, had claimed in a letter that he hadn't been reimbursed.

The allegations are that Trump improperly recorded the the payouts in his financial records, instead recording payments made to his attorney as legal fees, instead of payments to a porn star. Bragg is expected to claim that these payments constituted an illegal campaign contribution, in that Trump wanted to hide the alleged affair from the public prior to the 2016 presidential election.

In a written statement, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said, "The witch-hunts against President Trump have no basis in facts or law. The deranged special counsel and the DoJ have now resorted to prosecutorial misconduct by illegally leaking information to corrupt the legal process and weaponize the justice system in order to manipulate public opinion and conduct election interference, because they are clearly losing all across the board."

The statement continued on to note the classified documents discovered at President Biden’s residence in Wilmington and his offices, as well as the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state, suggesting that this conduct was worse than that of which occurred at Mar-a-Lago.

“President Trump is the only leader fighting for the Constitution and to protect the American people from being abused by those who want to destroy our system of government,” Cheung said.

People familiar with the investigation said that federal investigators have gathered new evidence showing that after the subpoena was delivered in May ordering documents to be returned, Trump had looked through some of the boxes of documents, "apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession," the Washington Post reported.

Investigators now believe, based on documentary evidence, that the boxes which held classified documents, as well as personal items and documents, were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area after the subpoena was served, and that Trump personally examined some of these boxes, the people said.

"Court papers filed seeking judicial authorization for the FBI to conduct the search of Trump’s home show agents believed that 'evidence of obstruction will be found at the premises,'" according to the Washington Post.

The people familiar with the investigation said that authorities have gathered emails and texts of former Trump assistant Molly Michael, which provided details into the day-to-day activities as Mar-a-Lago.

Investigators have also reportedly gathered evidence indicating that "Trump told others to mislead government officials in early 2022, before the subpoena, when the National Archives and Records Administration was working with the Justice Department to try to recover a wide range of papers," which does not constitute a crime, but could serve as evidence of intent needed under obstruction charges, the outlet reported.

The people said that prosecutors have collected evidence that Trump had ignored requests from multiple advisors to return the documents over a period of the year, and that he allegedly asked advisors and layers to release statements claiming that he returned the documents.

To date, no charges have been filed as a result of the contents of those documents, and the DOJ has not indicated what they expected to find.