Former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove speculated Friday on Fox News that a Secret Service agent may have informed the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI that there were classified documents inside Mar-a-Lago.
The Bush-era White House official said Secret Service members are sworn federal law officers and have a legal responsibility to report a crime. Due to this duty, Rove speculated that an agent informed the DOJ and FBI that former President Donald Trump’s lawyer falsely claimed in a letter that all classified material had been turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
“The Secret Service, and this is my own personal trajectory, I have no information other than just simply knowing that the Secret Service is there, they have no statutory responsibility over classified material but they are sworn federal law officers. They’re law enforcement, and they have a responsibility to report a crime and particularly after a letter is sent from one of the president’s lawyers saying ‘we don’t have any more classified material’ and President Trump has told the June 3 meeting ‘you can get anything you need, just say, and we’ll get if for you,'” Rove said.
“If somebody sent a letter and it said we don’t have classified material and somebody in the Secret Service said ‘I have seen classified material still within the walls of Mar-a-Lago’ and had a responsibility to report that up through the chain of command, or maybe directly to the counterintelligence division. They would have somebody who had said in essence ‘you have been misled,'” he continued.
Rove said it is clear that NARA had repeatedly requested that Trump hand over the classified documents he stored in his private residence. Trump previously said he would hand over any document the DOJ or NARA requested. (RELATED: ‘Political Witch Hunt’: Mike Davis Alleges Biden Knew About The Mar-A-Lago Raid)
“They were asking,” he continued. “How many times, we don’t know, but the impression in the affidavit is that they asked for them multiple times and in January were given material back. They then began to ask the federal government, the federal government begins to ask the former president for the return of anything he has there and they know there’s material there.”
He cited the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which establishes public ownership of all presidential documents and records and allows for the public to access private presidential records after the president leaves office. Rove claimed he found it incomprehensible that Trump would allegedly hold onto classified and top secret documents unlawfully.
The DOJ released a redacted affidavit Friday revealing that the FBI reviewed 15 boxes Trump handed over to NARA in January, sparking concerns about other classified material being stored at Mar-a-Lago. The agency found 14 boxes with classification markings which held 184 documents – 25 of the documents had “top secret” markings, 92 were labeled “secret” and 67 had a “confidential” warning.
The FBI retrieved 11 sets of classified information, which consisted of four sets of top secret documents, after raiding his home. The former president said all of the material had been declassified and were in “secured storage.”
The Secret Service told the Daily Caller that the matter “did not involve any investigation function” of their agency and did not comment further on Rove’s speculation. The FBI declined to comment.