Headlines

• Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says documents were found in burn bags, but their placement suggests an agent may have saved them in an overlooked storage area at DOJ headquarters that personnel were unaware of its existence.

Washington DC, June 3 (DPnet).– Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed in a bombshell that the Department of Justice discovered a room packed with documents from former special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Donald Trump.

Blanche said the room was not officially a "secret" but that personnel were unaware of it. "We found a room that had a lot of material in it," Blanche said. His comments come after FBI Director Kash Patel and former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino also discussed documents discovered by investigators.

"We found a room like that at DOJ, a few months ago," Blanche said. "It's not fair to say it was a secret room, but it's a room that had a lot of material in it."

Blanche added that the documents were found in "burn bags," which are typically used to destroy sensitive documents for security purposes. He said while it’s not uncommon to use these types of bags to get rid of sensitive information, where it was left led him to believe an "honorable" agent may have been trying to preserve it.

Former Department of Justice attorney Carmen Lineberger was indicted for allegedly removing confidential records from Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Donald Trump and disguising them with names like "Chocolate_Cake_Recipe.pdf" and "Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf.  She pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in West Palm Beach. 

On June 8, 2023, a grand jury in the Southern Florida U.S. District Court indicted Trump on 37 felony counts, including charges of willful retention of national security material, obstruction of justice and conspiracy, relating to his removal and retention of presidential materials from the White House after his presidency ended. Thirty-one of the counts fell under the Espionage Act.

On August 1, 2023, a grand jury for the District of Columbia U.S. District Court issued a four-count indictment of Trump for conspiracy to defraud the United States under Title 18 of the United States Code, obstructing an official proceeding and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding under the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, and conspiracy against rights under the Enforcement Act of 1870 for his conduct following the 2020 presidential election through the January 6 Capitol attack.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in both indictments. Trials were scheduled but never held. Some claim that the entire proceeding lacked a legal basis —and for that reason never reached trial in court— but that its purpose was to harm Trump's election campaign by sowing doubt among voters.