Discovered Obama-era Memo Raises Questions About Investigation
A purportedly never-before-seen Department of Defense memo from the Obama era has raised significant questions about the rationale behind the 2022 raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. Fox News Digital has exclusively learned about the memo, released by America First Legal (AFL), a conservative legal group. According to AFL, this memo from the Obama administration’s Department of Defense suggests that the federal government may have already possessed original copies of the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago.
The document in question is titled “Memorandum of Understanding Entered into by Presidential Information Technology Community Entities” and dates back to 2015. This memorandum followed a 2014 Russian breach of the Executive Office of the President’s network.
In response, then-President Barack Obama created the Presidential Information Technology Community (PITC) to better safeguard the executive branch from cyber-attacks. The PITC includes representatives from federal agencies such as the Department of Defense and Homeland Security, and it established that the president controls information received through the PITC network.
While the executive action creating the PITC was publicized, AFL claims to have obtained a memo confirming that the Department of Defense has been maintaining the information systems used by the President, Vice President, and Executive Office. This could imply that the federal government has stored Executive Office documents, including potentially “a substantial amount, if not all, of President Trump’s classified documents.”
Dan Epstein, Vice President of America First Legal, commented, “What America First Legal has uncovered after months of investigative work paints an unfortunate picture of the rule of law in Washington. A former President of the United States was subject to a politicized referral concocted by the Biden White House that led to an armed FBI raid of his home.”
The Department of Defense declined to comment on the memo, and the White House and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital. The FBI seized 33 boxes of documents from Mar-a-Lago in August 2022. This led to a legal battle and the charging of Trump with 40 felony counts, including alleged violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice.
Trump has vehemently denied the charges, labeling the investigation an “Election Interference Scam” orchestrated by the Biden administration and Special Counsel Jack Smith. The memo’s disclosure does not exonerate Trump but challenges the justification for the raid, suggesting that the government might have already had access to the documents.
Further complicating matters, Presiding Judge Aileen Cannon recently unredacted over 300 pages of evidence, revealing communications between the Biden administration and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) regarding Trump’s documents. These communications began shortly after Trump left office in 2021, with NARA expressing concerns about the handling of Presidential records.
The case has led to broader investigations into the handling of classified documents by current President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence. Special Counsel Robert Hur recently decided not to recommend criminal charges against Biden, citing his age and perceived cognitive state as factors that could influence a jury’s decision.
The memo from the Obama-era Department of Defense has intensified debates over the actions and motivations of the federal government in the lead-up to the Mar-a-Lago raid. As the legal battles continue, this revelation adds another layer of complexity to an already contentious issue, raising further questions about the treatment of high-profile political figures and the application of justice in the United States.