Donald Trump had a "hidden room" at his Mar-a-Lago home which was not searched by FBI agents who were retrieving classified documents from the resort in August 2022, according to reports.
Special Counsel Jack Smith's team are said to have questioned witnesses about the area, accessible via the former president's bedroom, after the federal agents conducted their search for sensitive materials which had been sought by subpoena, according to ABC News, citing unnamed sources.
Newsweek has not been able to confirm the reporting and has contacted the FBI and Smith's office, as well as Trump's spokesperson, for comment via email.
The interviews took place after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago but before Trump was indicted last June as part of the classified documents probe. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 charges in relation to allegations he illegally retained sensitive and top secret materials after he left the White House in January 2021, and then obstructed the federal attempt to retrieve them.
The FBI are said to have not searched what authorities described as a "hidden room" at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, as well as a locked closet at the Palm Beach estate.
While FBI agents did search Trump's bedroom, they did not investigate a small door in one of the walls which was concealed behind a dresser and by a television. The hidden room is said to have mainly been used by maintenance workers so they can access cables running through it.
The FBI agents are reported not to have been aware about the concealed room until after they left Mar-a-Lago.
It is unclear if Smith's team considered asking for a new search warrant after being made aware of the hidden room or the locked closet. An unnamed senior FBI official told ABC News that the agents were mainly focused on searching areas where they thought the classified documents may be located.
Jordan Strauss, a former federal prosecutor and former national security official in the Justice Department, described the FBI not conducting as thorough a search of Mar-a-Lago as possible as "a bit astonishing."
"You're searching a former president's house. You [should] get it right the first time," Strauss told ABC News.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance said that it is a bit of a "head scratcher" why the FBI would not have gone back to search every room of Mar-a-Lago, but suggested it is because they "felt comfortable" that they found what they were looking for.
"The government's primary objective here is to restore to the government all of this classified material," Vance told MSNBC's Alex Wagner.
"So one has to believe if they had reason to think that there was classified material still located at Mar-a-Lago, that they weren't able to obtain voluntarily, that they would have gone back with a warrant for more."
More than 100 classified documents, including some marked top secret, were recovered from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022.
Trump is also accused of keeping sensitive materials in rooms that could be accessed by the public at his Florida resort, such as bathrooms and office spaces.
The former president is currently scheduled to go on trial in May to face the classified documents charges.
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
