Trump was willing to return classified material in exchange for documents of the Russia probe

Donald Trump is said to have told his lawyers he was willing to return the classified material at Mar-a-Lago for files he believed would expose the FBI’s investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia.

While officials at the National Archives insisted that Trump return the files he had taken to Florida, the former president suggested to his lawyers that they should make a deal with the department, the New York Times reported.

Although Trump did not specify which files he wanted, he told his lawyers that there were documents that could “prove” the FBI’s investigation was a “hoax.”

However, Trump’s team never acted on the idea because the administration had the right to take back the documents Trump had brought to Mar-a-Lago.

Trump wanted to swap the documents (above) for files he said could prove the FBI’s investigation into collusion allegations between his 2016 campaign and Russia was a “hoax”

Gary Stern, the National Archives’ top attorney, began in 2021 in a letter demanding that Trump return Mar-a-Lago’s secret files.

“We also understand that about two dozen boxes of original presidential documents have been kept at the White House residence over the course of President Trump’s past year and have not been turned over to NARA, despite a decision by Pat Cipollone in the last days. of the administration they should be,” Stern wrote.

Stern continued to haunt Trump’s team all year to return the documents, and sources told the Times that Trump repeatedly claimed to his legal team that there was “nothing of importance” in the boxes.

Alex Cannon, a Trump attorney, was reportedly concerned that the files Trump took could contain documents sought in the Jan. 6 investigation or classified material, for which Trump’s team did not have the appropriate security clearances.

It was when Cannon began pushing for the boxes to be returned in late 2021 that Trump presented his idea of ​​swapping the documents for materials in the Russia investigation.

The FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8 and retrieved 11,000 documents

Files seized included confidential data that Trump and his team were not allowed to keep or oversee

Trump attorney Alex Cannon believed Trump had files wanted by the Jan. 6 Senate Committee. Pictured: Cannon testifies before the committee in June

The former president has long claimed that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into claims that Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election was a hoax fabricated by the FBI.

In 2019, Mueller concluded that Trump and his campaign were not colluding with Russians to increase his chances of defeating Democrat Hilary Clinton, who was criticized for her email servers.

Muller’s investigation has faced a wave of criticism since it concluded with Charles McGonigal, a senior FBI official who worked on the investigation and is now under fire for his own alleged ties to Russia.

McGonigal, the former counter-intelligence chief of the FBI’s New York City field office, had previously worked with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, closely liaising with 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is said to have played a leading role in the efforts of the FBI. Kremlin to get involved in the presidential race.

If McGonagall’s work with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska is found to have violated the Foreign Agent Registration Act, he could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Special counsel Robert Mueller (above) found that Trump and his campaign were not colluding with the Russians to increase his chances of beating Democrat Hilary Clinton

Charles McGonigal has been a special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division of the FBI’s New York Field Office since he was appointed to that position by James Comey in October 2016.

After fellow Trump attorney Eric Herschmann warned the former president that he could face legal trouble if he kept the documents, Trump is reportedly due to go through the files in December.

Although officials from the National Archives recovered the boxes in Mar-a-Lago, they believed the former president was still in possession of more.

Trump allegedly told Cannon to pass a message to officials that everything had been returned, but Cannon declined, the Times reported.

On August 8, the FBI raided the Florida estate, retrieving more than 11,000 government files marked as classified.

The recovered documents required such approval that FBI agents and even senior members of President Joe Biden’s administration were barred from viewing them, according to a new bombshell report from The Washington Post.

According to the Post report, some of the seized documents describe top-secret US operations that require special permissions, not just top-secret permissions.

Only the president and officials of the cabinet or near-cabinet would be allowed to allow other government officials access to them, with the Post saying only a few dozen national security officials even knew of their existence.