Documents that were improperly stored at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home weighed 500 pounds and cost the U.S. government $5,000 to ship to the National Archives, according to new documents.
The National Archives and Records Administration released documents in response to requests from Bloomberg News and other media outlets.
They included a freight bill for $5,000 to ship 15 boxes of presidential records from Florida to Washington, D.C.
NARA also released documents related to discussions among the Justice Department, White House, Congress and Mr. Trump’s lawyers about attempts to retrieve the documents, though they were heavily redacted.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee the investigation into papers that were stowed at Mar-a-Lago. Difficult negotiations over their retrieval led to an unprecedented raid on the former president’s estate in August.
Later, President Biden disclosed that classified records were discovered at his think tank in Washington and his home in Wilmington, Delaware, prompting Mr. Garland to appoint another special counsel, Robert Hur, to investigate.
A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence later reported that a number of classified documents were mixed in with papers that were boxed up and sent to Mr. Pence’s Indiana home.
