(Reuters) – U.S. Justice Department and FBI investigators have amassed new evidence indicating possible obstruction by former President Donald Trump in the probe into classified documents found at his Florida estate, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing sources.
FBI agents seized thousands of government records, some marked as highly classified, from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August. The investigation is one of two criminal inquiries into the former president being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Trump, who was indicted on Thursday in a separate inquiry in New York, has denied any wrongdoing in the cases and describes them as politically motivated.
After his advisers received a subpoena in May demanding the return of the classified records, Trump looked through some of the boxes of government documents in his home out of an apparent desire to keep certain things in his possession, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.
Investigators also have evidence indicating Trump told others to mislead government officials in early 2022, before the subpoena, when the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration was working to recover documents from Trump’s time as president, the Post reported.
The FBI referred questions to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Â
In a statement to the Post, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said that the “witch-hunts against President Trump have no basis in facts or law,” and accused Special Counsel Smith and the Justice Department of leaking information to manipulate public opinion.
Smith’s investigations are among a growing number of legal worries for Trump, who in November launched a campaign seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
In addition to the New York probe, Trump faces a Georgia inquiry over whether he tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
