there are major national archives facilities in seattle and st. louis, and fort worth, texas, and kansas city, and new york city and riverside, california, and atlanta, and bloomfield, colorado. a whole bunch of other places as well. the archives contain national federal records centers in cinematic nicholas cage action movie worthy locations like lenexa, kansas, and pittsburghfield massachusetts, and lorraine ohio and lee's summit missouri. the national archives isn't just one headquarters staying in washington. it is a big agency that has extra small, small, medium, large, and extra large facilities literally all over the country from coast to coast. national archives as an agency is also responsible for more than a dozen presidential libraries. everybody from herbert hoover through to donald trump, although donald trump's library is a presidential website. thanks to trump though, they have had to the national archives facility in hoffman estates, illinois, because that's where the national archives is keeping records from the obama administratio

now apparently it's a national archive staff. the national archives. talk about the case to prove the point right? if the federal government were a zoom the baby otters it's just not possible to object an international basis. even if you want to make the national archives a postponing a source of the national excitement, it's gonna cost you 100 million dollars to make that movie and it's gonna require nicolas cage and it's gonna be too ridiculous to take seriously, even for a second. but in this political environment on the right, they can generate a murderous range of the national archives or school boards or librarians or doctors or county public health boards or the little old ladies who work at the polls on election day. no one's beyond being threatened, doxxed, threatened, intimidated being driven out of public service. it is hard to stay in democracy at a practical level when all forms of public service large and small, all jobs in the public life of our democracy commit threats. you can't hold free and fair elections when it takes bravery to be

now apparently it's the national archives staff. the national archives. i mean, talk about the case that proves the point, right? if the federal government were a zoo, the national archives would be like the lop eared bunnies exhibit, the cute little vegetarian monkeys so spall small they could sit in a teaspoon. i mean, even if you want to make the national archives a pulse-pounding source of great excitement, it will cost you $100 million to make that movie and it's going to require fick laos cage and it's going to be too ridiculous to take seriously even for a second. but in this political environment on the right they can generate a murderous rage about the national archives apparently or the fbi or school boards or librarians or teachers or doctors or county public health boards or the little old ladies who work at the polls on election day. no one is beyond being threatened, doxed, harassed, driven out of public service. it is hard to stay a democracy just in a practical level. it is hard to stay a democracy when all forms of public service, large a

brian, this latest twist does highlight the role of the national archives. >> the people who run the o being in this kind of spotlight. experts tell us the role of the archives in protecting u.s. national security is often minimized or forgotten altogether, but they shudder to think of where we would be without this agency. the national archives isn't just a museum in washington holding the declaration of independence and the constitution. >> the national archives is the repository for all u.s. government material. its job, the job of the archivists, is to preserve and protect and make available that information. >> from letters between leaders. >> i just got a great letter from kim jong-un. >> to something with just one mark on it. everything a president writes, signs, or even jots a little notation on, is supposed to be saved for posterity by the national archives. experts say the archives has people dedicated to helping a presidential administration preserve those documents, from the beginning of each presidency to the end. what if a president wants to take an important document wi

it's all supposed to be at the national archives or in the control of the national archives rather than in a storage closet at mar-a-lago. it's remarkable they put this out because i think it gives us a lot of info about what's happening here and shows all of the steps that they took to try to head off what ultimately was an fbi search warrant executed on mar-a-lago two weeks ago now, katy. >> i read through the whole letter and i was surprised at the tone of it. it was quite terse. it was in response to this request from president trump's team that he had executive privilege and got to go before them more before the national archives handed them over to the fbi saying wait on all of this stuff. i'm going to go through it. the national archives said, what are you talking about? this is not your stuff, number one. you can't claim executive privilege. number two, this is national security. and we've got to go through it to make sure that everything is okay. we've got to do a damage assessment as the, from the american government. when you read it, did you take that away or was this just k

phil, let's start with the national archives security concerns. the letter says that the materials included documents, quote, top secret and special access program materials. translate that for us. what does that mean, and what kind of materials could we be talking about? >> boy, a lot of people have been saying, jake, that a lot of u.s. government material is overclassified. that is correct. but not in the circumstances of documents that you just described. let me explain the kinds of stuff you're talk about. top secret code word which i had access to would include stuff like intercepted communications from foreign governments. if you're trying to intercept, communications at an iranian nuclear facility, that's top secret code word. if that is released, the people you're intercepting will see it and they'll shut down those communications. special access program, that's a special category that you have to get signed in, literally signed in. you sign your name, to see every one of those documents. for example, if you have an infiltration into kim j

david: the national archives certifies the amendment process.t reports when all of the votes are in. susan: going to go back to exhibits and get you out of the legal controversies. you are a vietnam veteran. why did you feel it was important for this story to be told? david: coming up on the 50th anniversary of the war and we have such important material recently declassified, and i have just read a terrific book written by a vietnamese person whose family survived vietnam. the more we get away from it, the less we remember. i wanted to make sure those memories and those truths were captioned. susan: did working on that change the way you processed that? david: i think so. it was a controversial exhibit. controversial to funders, staff, i am proud of the fact we were able to create something that was universally celebrated, we have done it correctly. i gained a deeper appreciation for just how negligent our government was in communicating the truth to the american public, i had a sense of that. i was there. i was getting real information from pe

it would be giving that to the national archive. second -- >> definitional, right? if it's executive privilege document, then it is work product. -- it's the type of thing that belongs in the archive a night in the mar-a-lago basement. >> exactly. and the other, is when i was in special counsel, we dealt with getting documents from the trump white house and we were in the executive branch, the department of justice. we reported the attorney general, who reported to the president. these documents were going from the white house to the department of justice. that's within the executive branch. the executive privilege does not apply to documents going with in the executive branch itself. it's only going outside of it. so that doesn't work in this situation. the search was done by the executive branch. >> thank you. nothing i love more than someone telling them. right, andrew weissmann. thank you very much. >> thank. you >> coming, up why a trump appointed judges calling out donald trump's attempt to slow down the investigation of the classified documents. but first, it

but imagine -- imagine you are a senior archivist at the national archives. and you are watching the news that night on september 29th, 2018. and you see and hear donald trump say about kim jong-un, he wrote me beautiful letters and had great letters. we fell in love. you are an archivist. you know those letters are coming your way at some point. do you jump off of the sofa at home when you hear that? do you spill whatever you were drinking when you hear donald trump say that? that he has beautiful letters from kim jong-un? he has love letters from the murderous north korean dictator, who starves his people? from that moment forward, every archivist working at the national archives -- who knew that they were going to see, eventually, the trump presidential papers had to be planning. on day one of delivery of the trump presidential papers. an immediate high-speed search for the trump love letters with kim jong-un. by the trump presidential papers showed up at the end of the trump presidency. and the love letters weren't there. president obama's letter, to dona

you know, as bad as that letter from the national archives is for him, it discloses that there are some of our most important national secrets that apparently were residing at mar-a-lago, being rummage through by who knows who. i read something recently that i think is even worse for donald trump. and he's been a lot of time on this, what the new york times reported that mr. trump went through the boxes himself in late 2021. now first of all, that means he was concealing these documents on the property at mar-a-lago for a very long time. from late 2021 until the search warrant was executed by the fbi in august of 2022. but even more importantly, that has both legal consequences and even more importantly, practical consequences. the legal consequences are, when your crime that involves possession like mishandling of classified documents or national defence information prosecutors have to prove that and defend it. and mishandle them. and you know, the law has two kinds of position. actual possession, when you're grabbing hold of something, and constructive possession like when donald trum

you reviewed a may 2021 email from trump lawyers to the national archive, what is the takeaway?ional archives reached out to three different lawyers for trump. here is what he said. he said that in the final days of the trump white house, he identified two dozen boxes of presidential material that had been in the residence in the white house residence, not in the oval office but in the residence. and that pat cipollone according to the white house lawyer, according to the archives lawyer, pat cipollone, the white house lawyer, wanted the material returned. they asked repeatedly for the material to be returned and a ad not been returned. they asked again in may 2021, please return to material, in fact, they were almost begging. they set besides the boxes, they noticed several other high-profile items that had not been returned. former president trump correspondence with kim jong-un, the north korean dictator. his correspondence with former president obama had not been returned, even though they discussed a return for that. it really needed all these things back. wihat that shows

that's on the national archives to sort that material out. they cannot prosecute him for in -- even if it was classified, which i probably wasn't, they'll never meet the burden of intent because the president didn't pack it up and take it himself. the gsa said they did it and made a mistake. that should have been really the end of it. should have been a court subpoena where they said okay, we need this and we'll get the rest back to you. president obama and president clinton still have classified materials in their possessions in their homes that they haven't released to this day per the national archives. >> martha: so are you saying that these particular documents that were at mar-a-largo were all declassified in that december-january period of what year?

because that'sse the national archives is in the district of columbia. inbithey didn't send fbi agents from the washington office down there. they would have used fbi agents in south florida and they would coordinated with the u.s. attorney's office down there if they're playing it by the bookit . number two, he wouldn't have done anything without the sign a off for the attorney general of the united states . period. number three , this was well orchestrated. so this has been going on for weeks now. you keep asking your guestson what's the justification? there is no.e is justification , what's he going to say tomorrow. the attorney general. here's a i guess we've been negotiating with trump and his lawyers since february when weon found out they had this information. we were getting nowhere.er. t and then we know or we heard that some documents were being destroyed. maggie haberman, the new york times was on cnn. they've been running pictures of hers that she's going too have in the book of documents being flushed downhe the toiletd that b doesn't mean a

the national archives was involved. the national archives inspector general was involved and they got the justice department involved pretty quickly several months ago this year. >> the substance of what was found in mar-a-lago, a lot of classified documents to quote this affidavit, but also how it was stored, intermixed with other documents that were not classified that were personal in nature. that's the key part there. katelyn, stand by for us for just a moment. evan, on page 17 of the affidavit there is a paragraph that you say jumped out to you. >> yeah, so on page 17, paragraph 47, it describes that the fbi agents who reviewed the initial 15 boxes of documents that were retrieved and taken back to the national archives in january of this year, and it describes that a preliminary look at the documents found 184 unique documents bearing classification markings. that's a lot of documents. these are documents that according to the fbi would have ranged from everything from confidential to top secret. it talks about 67

they're all supposed to be stored by the national archives and controlled by the national archives and in a way that he would have access to but not in his storage because those documents properly belong to the american people who can study this in the future, who are going to be looking back to the trump presidency and trying to decide what the heck happened over those four years, they're going to need those documents to look back on. the idea of a former president squirrelling those away is exactly why the presidential record act was created, to make sure these were maintained and it came about after watergate to make sure that richard nixon after he took some documents away, they wanted to make sure in the future that wasn't happen. so we talked earlier about how presidents have gone -- former presidents are gone through these procedures to obtain these documents when they're writing memoirs and what not under certain conditions and in limited capacities and they could have them for a certain amount of time but they had to return them to their proper owner, which is unthe law the am

you reviewed a may email from trump lawyers to national archives. what the takeaway?away, anderson, is in may 2021, the top lawyer for the national archives reached out to three different lawyers for trump, and here's what he said. he said that in the final days of a trump white house, they had identified two dozen boxes of presidential material that had been in the residence, in the white house residence, not in the oval office but in the residence, and that pat cipollone, according to the archives lawyer, pat cipollone, the white house lawyer, wanted the material returned. they had asked repeatedly for the material to be returned and it had not been returned. and they were asking again in may 2021 to please return the material. in fact, they were almost begging. and they said besides the boxes, they had noticed several other high pro-file items that had not been termed. president trump's correspondence with kim jong-un. his correspondence with former president obama had not been returned even though that is customary for presidents to return that. and that they real

so the national archives was able to retrieve about 15 boxes of material from mar-a-lago already. they then produced two different inventories of that material that they recovered and handed it to the fbi. a 100-page inventory of just the unclassified material that was improperly taken and a three-page inventory of the classified material that was taken and that again, that is the national archives made that inventory and gave it to the fbi, is that right? >> that's right. we don't actually know how many inventories exist overall. but we do know of at least two unclassified inventories, one of it the unclassified items and then the unclassified version of the classified items, because even describing classified items can sometimes, needs to be classified. and these are rough estimates around 100 pages worth of items. we actually have some descriptors of some of the unclassified items, things like birthday dinner menu was schedules. calendars. speeches. agendas. talking points. we're still digging into this. again, every minute, sitting here getting text messages and new intel just

identified by the national archives.y are not competent agency to recognize classified documents because a president is the ultimate authority in declassified documents. he may do so with a wave of his hand without notification to the national archives. so i think what you're really seeing here is an abuse of power by the fbi and absolutely both merrick garland, the attorney general, and the fbi director for christopher wray -- >> sean: they would have have to have signed off on this, you agree with that, correct? >> absolutely. no agent or official at the fbi is going to undertake a rate of this magnitude on a former president of the united states without going to the individuals at the very top. that's garland and christopher wray. >> sean: let's talk about two other cases, professor dershowitz and i will get your point of view on this particular raid. james comey was accused pretty much of some of the similar. if you remember the case of sandy berger. went into the national archives, he literally shoved documents down

national archives.re not talking about jim jimmy hoffa did he take documents discussing if aliens existed. i'm concerned they may have planted something. at this point who knows. i don't trust the government. elizabeth: there is no indication of that yet. guy, your final word because this is, they're putting this, they're tightening the, you know, tightening what is going on around trump. they're really going after him right now. so what's the fallout? where do you see, again, i have to ask you again, this indication we're seeing more serious than just a records raid. there is something else going on. >> if that's the case then let's, tell us who initiated the warrant? who first, whose idea was this? who authorized it? who wrote it up? who supervised it? was the ag informed? was chris wray involved? and did the president know about it. elizabeth: guy lewis, fancy headaches, thanks for joining us. good to see you. >> sure, liz. david: elizabeth: chaos breaks out in california. l.a. city council erupts in

he was designated as one of the president's liaisons with national archives post presidency and now is working for truth social which is the president's social media website, which he placed when he was kicked off twitter. so that is kash patel in the national security arena. andrew weissman can you bring us up to date on what more you are seeing in this extraordinary affidavit? >> following up on that point about kash patel, what is pretty clear here is when we get to paragraphs 52 and 53 of this 37-page document, what the government is doing is they are alerting the court to what is called brady information. they are alerting the court to information that could be on the other side so that is why they attach a letter from one of the president's counsel and why they make a reference as noted to this interview where kash patel says these records could be de classified. and that the president had the power to declassify them. and so it was improper and misleading to suggest that he was actually storing classified information at mar-a-lago because he claimed that these were declassified.

but there is a document out there like national archives. that is already public.ut doing the things they are worried about because as we have all said, giving a road map to the investigation and identifying witnesses and the likeness. that is the thing most people are most furious about. the other thing people are curious about, why this and why now? why do a search warrant and why at this point? i'm not sure we will get much insight into that. >> kayleigh: martha, over to you. >> thank you very much going through the talk top of the document and what is in here. it talks about the government conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information and unauthorized basis as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records. it says the investigation began as a result from nara as we knew and goes through as he said, a removal of 15 boxes but go back because they felt that there was still information that was being kept in certain spaces that they wanted to get at and thoughts the raid. so, we are jus

questions as they were trying to give investigators access to some of the boxes that they had at the national archivesprivilege decision to the national archivist to try to keep as much distance as they can both for concerns about political repercussions, making sure they want the justice department to be seen as independent but also because the president has an agenda that he wants to focus on. now, he was talking about an element of that agenda, the supreme court decision on roe versus wade asked whether he had concerns about the national security implications of what may be discovered in the former president's -- what he has in terms of documentation in terms of national security documents. this is how he responded. >> are you concerned -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> we'll let the justice department determine that. we'll see what happens. >> reporter: we will let the justice department determine that. you can basically take that answer, maybe add or subtract two or three words and that's about the extent of every answer you're going to get from every official from the president on down. the preside

my question is that they go there, really, for national archives are they going their hunting for otherormation that they can further use to criminally go after the former president? this is the reality. i can predict for you this is what is going to happen because they will use this information, as i've said before, to go to the mainstream media and push the south. then they will go to judges, get more warrants, i think we are just seeing the beginning of a widespread push to get information from donald trump gecko and the people that are around him to intimidate them >> todd: speed of trump's lawyers need to be in court in less than four hours to make sure not one page of those documents is looked at and tell privilege and other privilege and other things are argued to make sure that nothing gets reviewed until the lawyers sign up on it. jonathan gilliam, when i'm in charge, you're going to be the fbi director. meantime, federal judge ruling that the biden administration -- the policy also known as the mic and protection protocol requires migrants who claim asylum in the u.s. to wait

we begin with the new cnn reporting overnight involving a newly revealed email from the national archives, email that shows just how long donald trump has been holding sensitive documents in the archives did not think should be in his position at all. the email indicates records were not returned despite a determination by a top white house lawyer that they had to be, according to a source throughout 2021, there are about a dozen emails and calls including a may 2021 email from the national archives to trump's lawyers that reads in part, it is also our understanding that roughly two dozen boxes of original presidential records were kept in the residence of the white house over the course of president trump's last year in office and have not been transferred to the archives despite a determination by pat cipollone, the white house counsel in the final days of the administration that they need to be. "the washington post" was the first to report on this email. >>> also this morning, the justice department has got a clock that is now ticking as they face a noon deadline to turn over a redact

and that again a national archives in may that inventory gave it to the fbi. is that right? >> that's right. we don't actually know how many inventories exist overall but we do know of at least two and classified inventories, one of the unclassified items in the unclassified version of the classified items. because even describing classified items needs to be classified. these are rough estimates around 100 pages worth of items. we have some descriptors of some of the unclassified items, things like birthday dinner menus were taken, schedules, calendars, speeches speeches, agendas, talking points. we are still digging into this every minute, getting text messages and new intel as we speak, but it is helping at least for us to understand the full scope of what the fbi could be looking for here. >> i don't want to keep you. i know that this is a story or actively working on, so i promise i will not keep me too long she could look at all this information and work with your colleagues. i want to make sure that we know and understand about what the national archives has done so f

cbs news previously reported that classified documents were found in boxes that national archives gotthe trump team shared a letter from the archivist with new details inside those 15 boxes were documents marked as classified, national security information, including the highest levels of classification, some known as special access program materials. now that means that trump took to florida some of the most highly classified secrets in the government. we have a lot of news and robert costa will start us off from palm beach, florida. good evening, robert. >> reporter: good evening, norah, stunning new details from the national archives about highly classified materials in former president trump's possession coming to light in an official document for the first time. newly revealed letter from national archives to the trump legal team detail the alarm inside the federal agency about the possession of highly classified material. specifically among the boxes trump took with him were over 100 documents classification markings comprising more than 700 pages, some up to top secret. >> top

and the national archives made that inventory and gave it to the fbi, is that right? >> that's right. we don't actually know how many inventories exist overall, but we do know of at least two unclassified inventories. one of the unclassified items, and then the classified version of the classified items because even describing classified items can sometimes -- needs to be classified. and these are rough estimates around 100 pages worth of items. we actually have some descriptors of some of the unclassified items, things like birthday dinner menu was taken, schedules, calenders, speeches, agendas, talking points. we're still digging into this, again every minute getting text messages and new intel just as we speak. but it's helping at least, you know, understand the full scope of what the fbi could be looking for here. >> i don't want to keep you. i know this is a story you're actively working on right now, and i promise i'll not keep you too long so you can look at all those texts and advance your work with your colleagues. but i do want to make sure i understand what

that was -- the one of the national archives had to constantly weldon for, right?is nearly 200 documents marked anywhere from confidential to top secret. you could imagine how the folks at the national archives, when they got them, started going through them, they were like, what is going on here? they also found, according to the affidavit, it appears to be trump's handwritten notes as well as documents labeled hcs. meaning they pertained to confidential human sources spice. documents related to fisa information, aka, national security surveillance of foreign targets. this is just the stuff, again, just the stuff the doj knew about, before the search warrant was released. it's managed to shake free from mar-a-lago. so, definitely, we heard a lot from this affidavit, but there's still a lot we don't know. as we said before, much of the documents were heavily redacted. the doj said that it was in part to protect, quote, and this is an interesting quote, a significant number of witnesses involved with the investigation. you gotta imagine that sentence alone will cert

could these new revelations from the national archives have any impact on the? >> i think that it's likely, i mean all of this is joined up an interesting way. and even the request to judge tennant, to appoint a special master to review this, will i think that he considered in light of what's just one heart is considering in terms of redacting particular information from that affidavit. but i think what we are likely to see, and what one hard as made very clear in some of his own words from the bench is that there is really sensitive information here. information about individuals in the field, intelligence operatives who might be made more public. the fbi agents whose names and identities could be made public. and i think all of, this together and all of the information that has already been unsecure may well council in favor of more redactions rather than less. >> melissa murray, jill wine-banks, philip rucker, thank you all for getting us started. coming, up we now know who will run up against ron descendants and michael rubio. we are live in both florida and

the national archive folks did not want that. in conversations with trump advisers, they said according to our reporting, we don't want to escalate this and become a big fight. so the on stinnence over time came to a head in the spring, when they realize the first tranche of 15 boxes, there are things still missing and a lot of them have classified markings on them. sow have this long effort to try to get the documents back and once they got some of them back they realized it was more problematic than they knew at the time. >> elise is calling this the revenge the librarians, the national archives is getting their stuff back. josh, thank you so much. >>> at least 25 people were killed an another 22 injures when russian rockets hit a train station in the central part of ukraine. at tack came as the country marks its independence day. president volodymyr zelenskyy said four passenger cars caught fire and the number of casualties could go up. zelenskyy also said in an 11-year-old boy was killed earlier in the day by russian rocket f

if february, the national archives, they released a statement. it's even on their web site if you want to look at it noting that the former president cooperation 15 boxes were transferred to the archives months ago, other boxes of interest were stored in a room at mar-a-lago secured with a specific pad lock installed at the request of those federal officials following a meeting in june. they had been invited in. they got to see everything. they asked the president to put a pad lock on it, and they d and in august, before any kind of subpoena or formal request, the fbi goes ahead and conducts a full-on raid, guns ablazing months in the making and we're supposed to believe this is totally normal, that the fbi, this is how they behave in every circumstance? this is the sad tragedy of this. the fbi that i revered growing up, the two relatives in my family that i revered growing up that were part of this agency, they have now shattered their reputation in all things, especially with donald trump. now, even cnn's top security analyst said the raid was d

there are stored of the national archives.nd so this really is uncharted waters for a large collection of -- whether they're classified or not. being outside the control of the archivist. >> jason baron, we appreciate your perspective on this very important thank you. >> thank you. >> so gas prices, they're continuing to fall which is great news. and it's nearing $4 a gallon this morning. >> more good news on the inflation front. online prices going down suddenly. mber. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 6 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrientss for immune support. boost® high protein. this is koli. my foster fail (laughs). when i first started fostering koli i had been giving him kibble. it never looked or felt like real food. but with the farmer's dog you can see the pieces of turkey. it smells like actual food. i saw a difference almost overnight. healthy poops, healthy dog, right? as he's aged, he's still quite energetic and y

the documents, i should say, left mar-a-largo when the trump team turned over 15 boxes to the national archivesy. the material, some of that material, fell into the category of special access program, which is more sensitive than top secret. it appears there were continuing conversations between the archives, the trump team and the white house over trump's executive privilege claims. according to the letter, the biden white house did not make the final decision on executive privilege, but instead deferred to the national archives to let them make the decision. the letter was pended by the accing archivist. they said they reached out to the national archives to cooperate with the fbi to turn over the classified documents to the fbi for review. also, martha, others in the intelligence community, officials at doj and the white house mentioned how the two are separate. doj had to reach out to the white house in this case because it deals specifically with executive privilege. they have to reach out to the body that houses a sitting president. that's how it's done by the book and that's how it's don

on january of 2022, the national archives received from the office of former president donald j trump of records. i just want to pause here for a second. remember this was a document that was written before the search warrant that was executed on august 8th. it is kind of starting to see just how much evidence the government had on hand to support probable cause that even more classified documents remained at trump's palm beach estate. here is the fbi describing what exactly was in those 15 boxes that were retrieved in january of this year. for those of you at home following for those of you following at home we're talking about paragraph 37 page 17. from may 16th through may 18th of 2022 fbi agents conducted a preliminary review of the 15 boxes provided to the national archives and identify documents with classification markings in 14 of the 15 boxes. a preliminary triage of the documents with classification markings revealed the following approximate numbers. 184 unique documents bearing classification markings, including 60 67 documents marked as confidential. 92 documents marked a

these were famous documents and they weren't in in what the national archives received so they reached out to say where's the stuff? where's the love letters? over months there was discussions that you guys have boxes at mar-a-lago. i mean, my own group, national security archive, we were in court against trump during the transition, got a litigation hold, government lawyers said to judge ketanji brown jackson, yes, we got a hold and everybody at the white house knows about it, apparently the white house didn't. we were worried about a bonfire at the rose garden. should have been worried about a u-haul in the back. national archives went after these boxes and finally in january, so eight months after they first inquired they get 15 boxes back from mar-a-lago. and they're stunned. there's classified information in there. the wheels begin to turn. february they reach out again. they ask the justice department to investigate. finally by june 3rd justice serves a subpoena on mar-a-lago and gets their first visual look at that storage unit in the basement. it doesn't even have a lock. >> on

according to "the washington post," the search by the fbi is related to the national archives requesting under the president's record act, documents from the white house, official records of the president's tenure. the washington post reports that it was not immediately clear on monday why fbi agents would conduct a search related to the documents many months after the national archives received 15 boxes of material. a sitting president is the top classification authority in the government, giving that person far more leeway than most other employees in deciding what is and is not classified. advisers speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss his actions have said that he mishandled documents for years largely by ripping them up. it describes the packing process at the end of his term in which the president and his family took boxes and material that should have gone to the national archives. the archives only learned that some of the material was missing after it tried to locate items for cataloging. after the national archives received the 15 boxes from the former president's p

about whether or not the president -- former president is entitled to these things, whether the national archives is or if it is much more serious of a national security threat that they pose. >> let's talk about this trial against alex jones the conspiracy theorist, fascinating moment there are jones' attorney september opposing counsel two years worth of alex jones' text messages. this was for a trial for the sandy hook parents. right? and now these messages have been turned over to the january 6 committee. what does it say to you that the committee now has this in their possession? we know al legslegex jones has riling up january of folks on that day. what does it say to you that they have two years of his text messages? >> well, if he was part of the conspiracy, we'll call it that in broad terms, to cause this insurrection and he is texting with people who have part or were a part of the conspiracy between him and trump or him and bannon or him and stone, then those messages will fill in blanks that the committee doesn't have because apparently when jones went before the committee he took the

the national archives indicates were at mar-a-lago. this new information tonight from a letter released by the former president's own team. the former president asking for a special master to review the evidence seized, and tonight, what a judge is now saying about that request. terry moran with late reporting. >>> also breaking, that warning in ukraine tonight from president zelenskyy. telling the ukrainian people brutal strikes could be coming from russia. what the u.s. state department is saying tonight, as well, sharing declassified intelligence with ukraine. ian pannell from inside ukraine with what we're learning at this hour. >>> in this country, the deadly flooding. torrential rains on the move tonight across several states. and now we learn of the wife and mother on the phone with her husband as her car was lifted by the waters. what she said to him. she did not survive. trevor ault in the flood zone, ginger zee timing out the storms tonight. >>> this evening, two men convicted in the plot to kidnap michigan governor gretchen

america. >> announcer: this is nbc "nightly news" with lester holt >>> good evening, everyone the national archives is offering new insight this evening into the nature of classified documents that triggered cascading alarm bells since at least the start of the year over materials held by former president trump. today the archives posting a letter sent to trump lawyers earlier this year after the ex-president turned over 700 pages of classified documents, some believed to be among the nation's most guarded secrets. the letter warning the department of justice was looking into the case and tonight new reporting by "the new york times" about the august 8th search of mr. trump's home citing those briefed on the matter, it offers new characterizations on the number and sensitivity of the documents recovered by the fbi. kristen welker has late details >> reporter: tonight, stunning new revelations about those documents recovered from mar-a-lago according to "the new york times," citing people briefed on the matter more than 300 documents had classified markings. some were handed over by former president

he should have handed them over to the national archives. documents that are if a top secret level or a bar represent it a get out. ah, ah, and exceptionally gray damage to the national security. trump support has protested the search in front of the maro lago property throughout the night. they suspect the right as part of a conspiracy within the justice department to prevent trump from running for reelection. i'm joined now by nemo romani he is a trial lawyer, former federal prosecutor and legal commentator, and he joins us from los angeles. welcome to d w. so this is the 1st time in history that the f b i has right at the home of a former president. incredible use of course. do we know what led the justice department to take this step? unprecedented is the right word 1st time in american history. so the national archives were in talks with trump and his representatives regarding the documents and what should be returned. there were 15 boxes that were returned, but apparently some of the documents were not. so they made a referral to the department of justice. and ultimately, i have

please don't send them over to the fbi. >> it's essentially showing that the national archives did due diligence. >> yeah, and one of the main arguments we've been hearing from trump's team was that it was too precipitous, too sudden when you did the search. the archives tried to do this the easy way. they negotiated. they said, here's what we found. we need the rest. when that didn't work, doj got involved. they served a subpoena. trump's team still didn't do it, and only then did doj get the search warrant. >> so it sort of gives a lie to some of the former president's supporters were saying, which is, well, you know, the folks at mar-a-lago was cooperating all along. >> they're going through the motions. really what this letter makes clear is they're delaying. they keep on delaying. this letter has a sort of impatient tone. the archives says, listen, we've been as patient as we can with you. we've given you a chance to lodge your legal objections. you're not getting back to us. you just keep saying executive privilege. we don't buy your argument and we're sick of waiting. >>> i talk

the post story really is filling out what happened and the alarmism within the national archives, but more anodine way that the archives said before. when the story broke that there were these 15 boxes recovers from mar-a-lago, one of the house committees asked the archives how far back does this go and the archives responded that they had ongoing communications with representatives of former president trump throughout 2021. so that's acknowledging that these conversations did go back. we didn't know that they were like this with gary stern, the archives general counsel writing and trying to get access to these things throughout 2021, but really, this is a saga that went on for some time and then continued on even after they got that initial set of boxes back in january of this year. they thought it was 15, but ultimately there were many more recovered during that search and seizure two weeks ago. >> and not just that these conversations were going on, but jennifer, this new report by the post is revealing that trump's own lawyers knew that these documents should be returned. >> that'

reporting for the first time this particular letter from gary stern, the general counsel at the national archiveso the trump team, and it's just fleshing out how that back and forth was going and it really wasn't going well for the archives. i mean, they at that time before this initial return of boxes, they expected there to be 24 boxes, they ultimately ended up getting 15 in january. they were under the impression that trump's team knew or their liaisons knew that there needed to be things returned and the archives was looking for specific things. they thought things like that hurricane map with the sharpie drawing on it, that that was missing, that the kim jong-un love letters were missing, that's what they thought they needed to get back from mar-a-lago, and then ultimately when they did get back those boxes there were things that were more concerning there, things with highly sensitive designations, classified designations on them in january of this year. so theoretically all of that should be in this justice department affidavit used in court. we still don't know what's in it, but we're wai

federal officials were initially alarmed when the national archives recovered more than 150 classifieduments from mr. trump in january. "the times" also reporting the former president went through the boxes himself in late 2021 and the justice department is seeking additional surveillance footage from mar-a-lago. all this as trump has filed a lawsuit asking a judge to name a third party known as a special master to review the materials seized by the government. more on those developments in just a moment, including reaction from senator patrick leahy. >>> also this hour, steve kornacki on today's primaries, including the fierce new york congressional race pitting two veteran democratic colleagues against eac other both chairs over one redistributed seat. and the latest on primaries in florida and oklahoma. >>> and teachers are in columbus, ohio, after bargaining associations with the school board stalled. >>> first to the classified documents seized from mr. trump. joining us is justice and as well jens correspondent ken dilanian, former u.s. attorney joyce vance, former u.s. attorney