A new report from Bloomberg News significantly undercuts an attempt by former President Donald Trump to blame the General Services Administration for having top-secret government documents stashed at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
During assorted public appearances, Trump has asserted that the GSA was responsible for packing and shipping boxes of White House records down to Mar-a-Lago.
But documents obtained by Bloomberg through a Freedom of Information Act request show that the boxes containing the top-secret documents were already packed when the GSA arrived to take them to Florida.
"More than 100 pages of emails and shipping lists between White House and transition staff and the US General Services Administration describe the minutiae of moving the Trump White House from Washington, DC, to Florida, down to how many rolls of bubble wrap and tape, all within a plan signed by then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows," the publication notes. "One thing is clear: The boxes were packed when the movers got there."
Among other things, Bloomberg cites an email correspondence that "strongly suggests that GSA was only involved in facilitating the shipping of the items and may not have had a role in packing the boxes," while also highlighting email exchanges in which GSA officials gave Trump aides instructions for how to pack and prepare the boxes for shipping.
Trump just two weeks ago tried to pin the blame on the GSA during an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, and aide Kash Patel similarly pointed fingers at the GSA during an earlier radio interview.
"The GSA packed the boxes, moved them to the president’s home like they did for Obama and Clinton and Bush, and President Trump invited the DOJ in and said, whatever you guys need," Patel said.
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