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Timeline of the classified documents

May 2021: National Archives realizes some records from Trump's presidency are missing

December 2021: Archives requests the documents from the former president

January 2022:  Archives received 15 boxes of material that had been stored at Mar-a-Lago, some of which were found to contain classified material

February 2022: The matter is referred to the Justice Department. Trump's team perform a 'dress rehearsal', to ready for the possibility of a search for the documents

May 2022: After several back-and-forths with Trump's legal team, the Justice Department issues a subpoena for additional records they believe to be in the former president's Florida home

Investigators believe after that subpoena arrived, storage boxes, including some containing classified material, were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area, so Trump personally examined some of them

June 2, 2022: Walt Nauta and two employees move documents out of a store room. Hours later, Trump's lawyers contact the DOJ and say they are welcome to visit and retrieve the documents 

June 3, 2022: Three FBI agents and one DOJ attorney go to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the additional material. They were given a single Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape, containing the documents, according to later court filings. That envelope contained 38 records with classification markings, including five papers marked confidential, 16 marked secret and 17 marked top secret

August 2022: DOJ applied for a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, citing 'probable cause' that additional presidential records and records containing classified information remained at Trump's Florida home. Court papers show that the original search warrant application showed agents believed that 'evidence of obstruction will be found at the premises'

August 8, 2022: FBI agents raid Mar-a-Lago: They recover 18 documents marked as top secret, 54 marked secret, 31 marked as confidential, and 11,179 government documents or photographs that had no classification markings

November 18, 2022: Merrick Garland, the attorney general, announces that he has appointed a special counsel to investigate the handling of the classified documents - Jack Smith 

June 8, 2023: Donald Trump says he has been indicted on federal charges over the classified information 

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