A senior Democrat has alleged that Donald Trump may have stolen sensitive government documents tied to his business interests and shown a classified map to passengers on his private plane, citing a Department of Justice memo released by the president's own administration.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Representative Jamie Raskin said the memo was part of a cache of 'cherry-picked' documents provided to the House Judiciary Committee in an apparent attempt to undermine Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Trump's handling of classified materials. Raskin, the ranking member of the committee, wrote that the disclosures suggest Trump retained documents so sensitive that only six people in the US government had access to them, and that some were 'pertinent to his business interests.'
The memo, dated January 13 2023, reportedly states that FBI investigators found the classified documents were 'commingled with documents created after Trump left office' and that certain documents would be pertinent to business interests, establishing 'a motive for retaining them.' Raskin also described an incident during a 2022 flight to a New Jersey golf club in which Trump may have shown a classified map to passengers, including Susie Wiles, then his super PAC CEO and now his chief of staff. The Justice Department produced a map of the aircraft with passenger names redacted.
Trump was criminally indicted under the Espionage Act in June 2023 over the retention of hundreds of classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The case was dismissed in July 2024 by a federal judge who ruled Smith had been unconstitutionally appointed; the charges were later dropped after Trump's re-election. The documents were subsequently returned to Trump, who has consistently denied wrongdoing, calling the investigation a politically motivated 'witch hunt.'
A White House spokesperson dismissed Raskin's letter as 'pathetic,' adding that Trump 'did nothing wrong' and defeated the 'Biden DOJ's unprecedented lawfare campaign.' Raskin, however, urged Bondi to 'stop the cover-up' and allow the American people to know what secrets Trump 'betrayed' and how he may have 'cashed in on them.'
