‘I Don’t Know’: Rep. Schiff on why DOJ Waited 18 Months to Seize Alleged Sensitive Docs from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Home

[Image: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) -- CBS Face the Nation Twitter video screenshot.]

During a Sunday airing of CBS’s “Face the Nation”, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) did not have an answer over why the DOJ waited 18 months to retrieve alleged sensitive documents from 45th President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.

According to the warrant which was unsealed Friday by Judge Bruce Reinhart, Trump is under investigation for alleged violations of 18 USC 2071 — concealment, removal, or mutilation; 18 USC 793 of the Espionage Act—gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information; and 18 USC 1519 — destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations.


Moderator Margaret Brennan asked Schiff during the interview, “So, if there were truly materials of this classification level, and it’s been publicly reported elsewhere that there were materials related to nuclear programs for example — if there was that sensitive level of information being held, why did justice department officials wait 18 months after the end of the Trump presidency? What changed that made this immediate?”

Rep. Adam Schiff replied, “I don’t know.”

“Uh, but uh, if the Trump people represented provided all the classified or national security information and didn’t, that’s a serious problem, and I can tell you anyone in the intelligence community that had, uh, documents like that marked ‘Top Secret’, ‘SCI’ in their residence after authorities went to them, um, you know, they would be under serious investigation,” he said.

The Washington Post, who cited unnamed sources last week, reported that some documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items sought by the FBI. Trump on Friday, however, called the report a hoax and a continuation of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative that was peddled by legacy news outlets.


“Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more. Same sleazy people involved,” Trump fired back on Truth Social last week.

“Why wouldn’t the FBI allow the inspection of areas at Mar-a-Lago with our lawyer’s, or others, present. Made them wait outside in the heat, wouldn’t let them get even close – said ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT'”, he wrote.

“Planting information anyone? Reminds me of a [Christopher] Steele Dossier!” Trump said. Video Below


Rep. Adam Schiff’s remarks:

After the release of the warrant, 45th President Donald Trump said in a statement on Truth Social that “it was all declassified”.

“Number one, it was all declassified. Number two, they didn’t need to ‘seize’ anything. They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago. It was in secured storage, with an additional lock put on as per their request,” Trump said.

“They could have had it anytime they wanted—and that includes LONG ago. ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK. The bigger problem is, what are they going to do with the 33 million pages of documents, many of which are classified, that President Obama took to Chicago?” the former Commander in Chief wondered.

Related: Schiff: “Right Now, We Only Have One Functional Party & A Cult Of Personality Around Donald Trump”