Donald Trump asked for boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago to be moved after receiving a government subpoena to return them, an employee of the former president reportedly told the FBI.
The Mar-a-Lago employee is cooperating with the US Department of Justice and has been interviewed multiple times by federal agents, the Washington Post said.
The Post, CNN and New York Times also reported that the FBI had obtained surveillance footage.
The testimony and footage could be some of the strongest evidence of possible obstruction of justice by Trump, who is considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 while facing legal jeopardy on numerous fronts.
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor, said: “Day by day the evidence that proves Trump personally orchestrated the theft and concealment of top secret documents becomes stronger. Any shadow of a doubt about his guilt is rapidly vanishing.”
The Times reported that Walt Nauta, “a former military aide who left the White House and then went to work for Mr Trump at Mar-a-Lago”, was seen on security footage moving boxes out of a storage room before and after the justice department issued a subpoena in May.
The FBI conducted a court-approved search on 8 August, seizing more than 11,000 documents, including about 100 marked as classified. Trump reacted furiously, calling the search a raid and claiming to be the victim of a witch-hunt.
The Times said Nauta had been interviewed by the justice department “on several occasions”, starting before the FBI search, but added that it was not clear if he was the employee the Post said was directed to move boxes.
The name Waltine Nauta appears on a September 2020 list of US Navy Supply Corps personnel promoted to senior chief petty officer. The same name appears on a Federal Elections Commission list of disbursements by Save America, Trump’s political action committee.
The Times said Nauta’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr, declined to comment.
The Post reported that the Mar-a-Lago witness initially denied handling sensitive documents but in subsequent conversations admitted to moving boxes at Trump’s request after Trump received the justice department subpoena.
The justice department is reported to have told Trump it does not believe he has returned all the presidential documents he took to Mar-a-Lago.
On Wednesday, the department did not comment.
A Trump spokesperson said the Biden administration had “weaponised law enforcement”.
“Every other president has been given time and deference regarding the administration of documents, as the president has the ultimate authority to categorize records, and what materials should be classified,” Taylor Budowich said.
Since news of the justice department investigation broke, Trump has fought a delaying action, securing the appointment of a special master to examine materials seized by the FBI and asking the supreme court to intervene in a disagreement about which documents should fall under the special master’s purview.
The special master is examining the records, some of which reportedly concern nuclear weapons policy, for any that might fall under executive privilege, under which records of communications between presidents and advisers are protected.
On Thursday, the court rejected Trump’s request that it intervene in the classified documents investigation.
More worrying for Trump, the records investigation is only one of several into his business and political activities.
The New York attorney general recently filed a civil lawsuit accusing Trump and three of his adult children of fraud and misrepresentation in preparing financial statements from the family real estate company.
On Thursday, the attorney general, Leticia James, filed a request for a preliminary injunction, “to stop Mr Trump and the Trump Organization’s ongoing fraudulent scheme”.
James said: “Since we filed this sweeping lawsuit last month, Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have continued those same fraudulent practices and taken measures to evade responsibility. Today, we are seeking an immediate stop to these actions because Mr Trump should not get to play by different rules.”
The Trump Organization is also scheduled to go on trial on 24 October, on New York state criminal tax fraud charges.
Trump also faces investigations relating to his attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election, including a justice department investigation and an investigation by a grand jury in Georgia, regarding his subversion efforts there.
The House January 6 committee, investigating Trump’s election subversion and incitement of the Capitol attack, is scheduled to stage its final hearing on Thursday.
Trump also faces deposition in a lawsuit lodged by the writer E Jean Carroll, who says he raped her in New York in the mid-1990s. Trump denies the allegation and on Wednesday reacted furiously to a judge’s ruling that his deposition should go ahead.
Trump has sued CNN for comparing him to Hitler and demanded that news outlets including the Guardian stop calling him a liar.
The revelation that a Mar-a-Lago employee is cooperating with the justice department in the records investigation was wholly more serious news.
Carol Leonnig, a Pulitzer prize-winning Washington Post reporter who has co-authored two books about Trump, said: “This is a big deal.”
