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Former President Donald Trump suggested that "Marxist Thugs" working at the FBI could have planted incriminating evidence in his possession while raiding his Mar-a-Lago home last summer.
On Wednesday, Trump took to Truth Social to address the ongoing investigations into the classified documents found in his possession and President Joe Biden's possession, saying that Democrats were emphasizing the "large number" of records at his Florida home to make Biden's situation "look less significant."
Trump said that during his time in the Oval Office, the confidential materials were often collected after his briefings, but that the empty folders were not, and over his four years, he saved "hundreds of them." He then alleged that it was these empty files that FBI agents found, recorded and seized when they executed a search warrant at his private residence in August.
"Remember, these were just ordinary, inexpensive folders with various words printed on them, but they were a 'cool' keepsake," Trump wrote. "Perhaps the Gestapo took some of these empty folders when they Raided Mar-a-Lago, & counted them as a document, which they are not."
"It's also possible that the Trump Hating Marxist Thugs in charge will 'plant' documents while they're in possession of the material," he added. "As President, and based on the Presidential Records Act & Socks Case, I did NOTHING WRONG. JOE DID!"
This is not the first time that Trump has suggested that the materials discovered at Mar-a-Lago were "planted" by FBI agents.
In the weeks following the August 8 raid, Trump publicly insinuated on multiple occasions that federal agents planted evidence while on his property. Those records, plus the initial batch of documents retrieved by the National Archives in January, brought the total number of classified records recovered from Trump since he left office to more than 300.
"Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, 'planting,'" Trump wrote on Truth Social just days after the FBI search.
Last month, additional documents with classified markings were discovered in a storage unit connected to Trump by a team hired by the former president.
At the same time, classified documents from Biden's time as vice president during the Obama administration were discovered in November and December at his former Washington, D.C., office and his home in Delaware. Those discoveries were not made known to the public until this month.
In response to both situations, Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed special counsels for investigations into each of the two men and the circumstances surrounding their possession of classified documents.
The Department of Justice declined Newsweek's request for comment.
Update 01/18/23, 12:04 p.m. ET: This story was updated with the Department of Justice's response.
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek senior reporter based in New York City. She has covered U.S. politics and culture extensively. ... Read more