Beyond recovering the documents, legal experts said reports of authorities interviewing Trump aides about whether documents were declassified suggest they continue to gather evidence to build a potential criminal case against Trump himself.
Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.
“I’m convinced they are building a case to determine if they can bring charges against Trump,” said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor now at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. “You just aren’t going to do that if your goal is to just primarily secure the documents and move on.”
Paul Rosenzweig, a former federal prosecutor and senior counsel on the Whitewater investigation of President Bill Clinton, also said prosecutors wouldn’t pursue witnesses about Trump’s reputed standing order for declassification of documents if not to build a case.
“If they just wanted the paper back, they wouldn’t be doing that,” said Rosenzweig, who now manages Red Branch Consulting for cybersecurity. “Doing that means that they’re trying to block off defenses and lock people in.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member