It also alleges the documents were stored haphazardly — including on the stage of the Mar-a-Lago ballroom for two months. They were also kept in a bathroom and a shower, the filing says.
A photo included in the court filing shows about 30 boxes in a bathroom crammed around a toilet and next to a shower with a chandelier hanging above.
On one occasion in December of 2021, Nauta entered the storage room where they'd been moved to and found several of the boxes had fallen with their contents spilled on the floor, including one marked "secret," the filing says.
It also shows that Trump had been aware of the existence of the boxes, and about what was inside them, and would have Nauta bring him various boxes from time to time. It also lays out in plain detail a series of texts between two Trump employees and Nauta from November 2021 through January 2022 that make clear that the former president wanted to review boxes before some were returned to the National Archives.
After the feds subpoenaed him for their return, he allegedly told one of his attorneys "I don't want anybody looking through my boxes."
"Wouldn't it be better if we just told them we didn't have anything here?" the lawyer quoted Trump as saying.
The filing says that in the days before the Justice Department came to recover documents pursuant to the subpoena, Nauta removed 64 boxes from the storage room and took them to Trump's residence in the club. He brought just 30 of the boxes back to the storage room before the feds arrived.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the documents were his to do with as he pleased.
Were they stored in China Town?
The boxes, Chung said, were taken to a General Services Administration transition facility near the White House, where they stayed for six months. They were then moved to a building in Washington's Chinatown neighborhood that was leased by the Penn Biden Center before eventually being moved to the think tank's main office space.
Former Biden aide told House committee how classified documents ended up at private office
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