Special Counsel Jack Smith is nearing the end of his investigation regarding classified documents seized during an FBI raid of former President Donald Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago estate last year.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that sources familiar with the investigation say Smith is close to concluding his investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents confiscated in August, 2022, following the execution of a search warrant on Trump's home in Palm Beach, Florida.
According to the report, close associates of the former president are "bracing" for an indictment, which would be the second Trump is facing after being charged in a separate matter in New York City involving the falsification of documents related to a 2016 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her silent about an alleged affair the pair had years earlier.
Prosecutors working with Smith have concluded interviews with employees at Trump's resort and home, including political aides, maids and maintenance staff, the Journal reported.
Dozens of armed FBI agents descended on Mar-a-Lago Aug. 8, 2022, to execute a search warrant for boxes of material sought by the National Archives that Trump brought to Florida after leaving the White House in January, 2021, the New York Times reported at the time.
"After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate," the Times reported Trump saying at the time, maintaining it was an effort to stop him from running for president in 2024. "Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries."
The raid led Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint Smith as special prosecutor in the case as well as investigating any role Trump may have played in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
"Based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting President [Joe Biden's] stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel," Garland said in November, 2022, after appointing Smith. "Such an appointment underscores the Department's commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters. It also allows prosecutors and agents to continue their work expeditiously, and to make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law."
Although the Trump classified document investigation is apparently wrapping up, there is no further word from Garland about a separate investigation of classified materials found at Biden's Delaware home and a Washington, D.C., office he used in 2017 after serving as vice president under former President Barack Obama.
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