The New York Times reported that one of Donald Trump's lawyers signed a statement in June stating that all documents marked "classified" had been returned to the government.
The FBI searched Trump's Florida home and golf resort on Monday and found classified information.
The declaration could be a sign that Trump's team wasn't forthcoming with the information.
A visit to Mar-a-Lago by the top counterintelligence official in the Justice Department's national security division led to the signing of the declaration about the classified information.
The officials met with Trump and two of his lawyers.
The boxes of documents Trump took from the White House were shown to the team by the Times. With the declaration that all classified documents had been turned over, the officials left with classified material.
The attorneys were told to get a better lock for the storage area.
The Mar-a-Lago footage was subpoenaed by the Justice Department and included views from outside the storage room. The source said that the footage showed that boxes were moved out of the storage room after the Justice Department contacted the Trump team.
According to the warrant and property receipt used by the FBI to conduct the search, 20 boxes of documents were removed from Mar-a-Lago.
It is supposed to be safeguarded only in a secure government facility that some of the classified information was seized Monday. The Washington Post reported that some of the documents were related to nuclear weapons.
According to the warrant, Trump is being investigated for possibly violating the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice, and removing and destroying official documents.
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration retrieved 15 more boxes of material from Mar-a-Lago in February. The National Archives should have received the documents at the end of Trump's term.
The National Archives asked the Justice Department to look into the matter.
In a statement Friday, Trump said he issued a "standing order" to declassify anything he removed from the White House. He didn't give any evidence that he followed any procedure or first looked at the classified documents.
There is a process for declassifying information.
He probably didn't have the authority to declassify information on spies and nuclear weapons.
At The New York Times, you can read the full story.
The article was first published on HuffPost.
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