Timeline of Collusion: DOJ & NARA Officials Colluded with Biden White House to fabricate a Classified Documents Case against Trump
By Jeff Carlson
This is a timeline of events leading up to Trump’s classified documents case. The timeline covers GSA’s handling and shipment of documents, along with actions taken by NARA, DOJ & White House Officials. This timeline was created by Jeff Carlson on April 28, 2024 as backing documentation for an episode of Truth Over News. Many of the details came from Court documents that were first highlighted by journalist Julie Kelly.
Additional details on the parallel saga of documents relating to Trump’s Declassified Binder that were withheld by the DOJ come from court documents previously filed by journalist John Solomon.
If you use this timeline, please provide attribution.
Classified Documents Timeline:
December 30, 2020 - At Trump’s request, the DOJ provided the White House with a binder of materials related to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation. This was Trump’s famous Declassified Binder.
According to the motion, “Trump reviewed them and decided that the binder should be declassified to the maximum extent possible.”
January 2020 - White House Office of Records Management official reaches out to NARA claiming that 24 boxes of documents are in the White House residence.
Toward the end of Trump’s term, a career official in the White House Office of Records Management expressed concerns to the National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”) that there were Presidential records in the White House residence that had not been transferred to (White House Office of Records Management) WHORM.
Based on discussions during the Administration with Trump’s White House Staff Secretary, WHORM Official 1 believed there to have been approximately 24 boxes of documents in the White House residence.
WHORM Official 1 also spoke with three high-ranking members of the Trump Administration in January 2021 to discuss the same concerns about missing Presidential records, including the boxes.
January 19, 2021 - Trump issues order declassifying documents
January 19, 2021 - Meadows invited Solomon to the White House to “review several hundred pages of declassified documents and to discuss a plan for publicly disseminating the entire binder to the American public on the morning of January 20, 2021.”
These included “lightly redacted versions of the four Crossfire Hurricane FISA warrants, a 2017 FBI 302 interview report with Christopher Steele and several tasking orders related to a second Confidential Human Source named Stefan Halper.”
Evening of January 19, 2021 - Solomon’s staff went to the White House in the evening of January 19, 2021, to get the binder and begin scanning the documents.
Separately, the DOJ delivered an envelope to Solomon’s office containing the documents he was permitted to write about.
As they set up the equipment, “they received a call from the White House asking that the documents—still under embargo—be returned because the White House wished to make some additional redactions to unclassified information under the Privacy Act.”
January 20, 2021 - “Without the President’s knowledge or consent, Meadows sent the binder to the Department of Justice with a cover memorandum directing the Attorney General to apply redactions consistent with the standards of the Privacy Act and then publicly release it.”
The documents were never returned to Solomon and reside within the DOJ to this day.
May 5, 2021 - NARA General Counsel Gary Stern sent an internal email attaching a draft letter to Trump’s (Public Records Act) PRA representatives.
“The transfer of the Trump electronic records are still ongoing and won’t be completed for several more months”
NOTE: GSA was dragging their feet in relation to pallets of boxes for delivery to Mar-a-Lago. The document boxes were finally sent in two shipments - September 9, 2021 & September 15, 2021. The documents shipped from the GSA were delivered to Mar-a-Lago in two shipments - one on September 14th and the other on September 20th.
The 15 boxes Trump later sent to NARA - along w/other overlooked boxes perhaps making up the 24 total claimed by David Ferriero - may have all been in these shipments.
May 6, 2021 - NARA wrote to Trump’s PRA representatives on May 6, 2021.
The letter expressed concern about significant records that NARA “cannot account for” and requested the PRA representatives’ “immediate assistance.” These missing records included several prominent documents, such as the letter that former President Obama had left for President Trump in the Resolute Desk; the letters Trump received from North Korean President Kim Jong-Un; and a poster board showing the path of Hurricane Dorian that Trump had used during a televised briefing. The letter also noted that NARA understood there to be “roughly two dozen boxes” that had been stored in the White House residence and never transferred to NARA
NOTE: GSA was dragging their feet in relation to pallets of boxes for delivery to Mar-a-Lago. The document boxes were finally sent in two shipments - September 9, 2021 & September 15, 2021. The documents shipped from the GSA were delivered to Mar-a-Lago in two shipments - one on September 14th and the other on September 20th.
The 15 boxes Trump later sent to NARA - along w/other overlooked boxes perhaps making up the 24 total claimed by David Ferriero - may have all been in these shipments.
End of June 2021 - By the end of June 2021, NARA had still received no update on the boxes, despite repeated inquiries, and it informed the PRA representatives that the Archivist had directed NARA personnel to seek assistance from the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), “which is the necessary recourse when we are unable to obtain the return of improperly removed government records that belong in our custody.”
August 30, 2021 - NARA Archivist David Ferriero threatened one of Trump’s PRA representatives [Mark Meadows - former WH Chief of Staff] that he was “assuming” an alleged - and non-existent - “24 boxes” of records “have been destroyed” and that he was “obligated to report it to the Hill, DOJ, and the White House.”
August 30, 2021 - Meadows reaches out to NARA Archivist David Ferriero
August 31, 2021 - NARA Archivist David Ferriero informed WHORM (White House Office of Records Management) Official 1 that Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff wanted to speak with WHORM Official 1 directly about any missing records.
WHORM Official 1 was uncomfortable about speaking alone with the former Chief of Staff and reported the outreach to his supervisor—the White House Staff Secretary—the same day. The White House Staff Secretary advised WHORM Official 1 to speak with the White House Counsel’s Office, and Deputy White House Counsel Jonathan Su began assisting WHORM Official 1 in arranging the call with the former Chief of Staff
September 1, 2021 - Stern “circulated a letter that we could consider sending to the Attorney General about missing Trump records.”
Early September 2021 - In early September 2021, a Trump PRA representative—who had served as Deputy White House Counsel during the Trump administration—proposed to a NARA official the idea of a conference call including WHORM Official 1, Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, and others regarding the missing boxes.
NOTE: GSA was dragging their feet in relation to pallets of boxes for delivery to Mar-a-Lago. The document boxes were finally sent in two shipments - September 9, 2021 & September 15, 2021. The documents shipped from the GSA were delivered to Mar-a-Lago in two shipments - one on September 14th and the other on September 20th.
The 15 boxes Trump later sent to NARA - along w/other overlooked boxes perhaps making up the 24 total claimed by David Ferriero - may have all been in these shipments.
Late September 2021 - Without disclosing that NARA had already drafted a referral letter and contacted the DOJ, Deputy White House counsel Jonathan Sue asked one of President Trump's PRA representatives to permit [redacted] to access notes from the Trump Administration relating to records handling.
Su then intervened when Stern offered to provide a copy of the notes to President Trump's PRA representative. Stern agreed to coordinate on this issue with the Biden administration but informed soothe that the request was atypical. Two days later, Stern assured Su that the PRA representative had not asked to see these records.
September 30, 2021 - A subsequent email from NARA’s Stern on Sept. 30, 2021, reveals that the White House counsel’s office “is now ready to set up a call to discuss the Trump boxes.”
This email came after Mr. Stern emailed Deputy White House Counsel Jonathan Su two days earlier to “check back in to see when and how you want to proceed re [sic] meeting with [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], and NARA to discuss the Trump boxes?”
October 19, 2021 - a call took place among WHORM Official 1, another WHORM employee, Trump’s former Chief of Staff, the former Deputy White House Counsel, and Su about the continued failure to produce Presidential records, but the call did not lead to a resolution.
January 17, 2022 - Trump released 15 boxes to be delivered to NARA by truck.
January 19, 2022 - Within 24 hours of receiving 15 boxes from Mar a Lago, NARA provides an informal assessment.
“We received 15 bankers boxes and the weather map. My plan was to glance into each box before I shelved it so I could give you all a high level overview.as I fan through the pile of newspapers at the top of the first box, I found several unfolded classified docks in between some of the newspapers. So I took all the boxes to the SCIF.”
Late January (20th-23rd) 2022 - Su directed the NARA officials to contact officials in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (“ODAG”), which was entirely consistent with the statutory role of the Attorney General to bring court actions to retrieve missing records
January 24, 2022 - Stern and [redacted] also of NARA consulted with Deputy White House Counsel Jonathan Su on late January 24, 2022. During the consult Su referred Stern and [redacted] to Department of Justice Associate Deputy Attorney General Emily Loeb and associate deputy attorney General David Newman. Loeb and Newman instructed [redacted] and Stern to refer the matter to NARA’s office of the Inspector General and the office of the director of National Intelligence. Newman also provided Stern with DOJ contacts - Jay Brat chief of the National Security Division and Corey Amundson chief of the Public Integrity section. [Redacted] and Stern had additional conversations with Brat and Amundson regarding next steps.
January 25, 2022 - Acting on instructions from the White House and DOJ, NARA sent information regarding the 15 boxes to NARA-OIG. On the same day NARA-OIG wrote to Thomas Mondheim, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, that our agency just gave us a quick brief on what appears to be a very high level potential spillage and records management issue.
February 9, 2022 - NARA made its formal referral to DOJ. That referral was entirely consistent with the Government’s longstanding interest in enforcing laws safeguarding national defense information
February 11, 2022 - NARA official who made Feb 9th referral is interviewed by FBI.
February 24, 2022 - on February 24th, 2022, a detailed summary of the fifteen boxes from Trump were forwarded by NARA to the FBI for review.
Documents [15 boxes from Trump] are forwarded by NARA to the FBI for review
A key exhibit included with a motion to compel filed in January was an FBI case file labeled “[Redacted] PLASMIC ECHO; Mishandling of Classified or National Defense Information.”
This file, now made public, summarizes an initial review of documents forwarded by NARA to the FBI on Feb. 24, 2022. The review uncovered 106 classified documents across 12 out of 15 boxes, totaling 767 pages.
March 24, 2022 - Trump filed a lawsuit on March 24, 2022 - roughly four months before the DOJ’s raid on Mar-a-Lago. Trump files an amended complaint on June 21, 2022.
Although the lawsuit was dismissed by a Bill Clinton-appointed judge, it targeted many familiar names involved in the Russia-Collusion hoax. It also cited only public information, despite having a surprising level of detail.
April 4, 2022 - FBI requests permission from DOJ’s Jay Bratt to access 15 Trump boxes they received from NARA.
May 11, 2022 - On May 11, 2022, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena to the Office of Donald J. Trump, seeking the production of all documents with classification markings in the possession of that office or Trump himself.
June 3, 2022 - Trump responded to the May 11th subpoena on June 3, 2022, via his attorneys. They turned over to the FBI and DOJ 38 additional documents marked classified from Mar-a-Lago.
June 2022 - During their visit to Mar-a-Lago, FBI agents noticed surveillance cameras, including in the vicinity of the storage room where Trump’s attorney had found classified documents.
“In June 2022, the grand jury issued a subpoena for camera footage from Mar-a-Lago. A review of that footage, combined with other information obtained during the investigation, revealed that between May 23, 2022, and June 2, 2022, Waltine Nauta—acting at Trump’s direction—moved approximately 64 boxes from the storage room to Trump’s residence, with Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira later moving approximately 30 boxes back to the storage room before Trump’s attorney’s review.”
June 17, 2022 - Trump designated “Kash Patel and Solomon as his representatives” for inspection of the DOJ’s “binder” documents. Trump’s lawyer had reached out to Gary Stern, General Counsel of the National Archives, telling him that they would like to begin reviewing the documents at the Archives on June 21, 2022.” Stern agreed.
June 21, 2022 - Trump files an amended complaint to his March 24th lawsuit.
The amendments include a large number of details that weren’t in the original complaint. Other details come from Special Counsel John Durham’s court filings over the last 12 months.
June 23, 2022 - Stern suddenly told Solomon the binder was not at the National Archives - it had been transferred back to the DOJ eighteen months earlier “per Meadows’s original memorandum to the Attorney General.”
Stern said they did have a box of 2,700 “undifferentiated pages of documents with varying types of classification and declassification markings.” But Stern also told Solomon that because the National Archives could not ascertain the classification status of any information in the box, it would treat its contents as “classified at the TS/SCI level. - or Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information.”
July 7, 2022 - Solomon told Stern that “ he believed the records held by the Archives were the very same documents that Trump had declassified and that they were copied from the binder in preparation for release to the news media on the morning of January 20, 2021.”
Solomon also asked that Patel, who held a TS/SCI clearance and was familiar with the documents in the binder, be allowed to verify them.
July 12, 2022 - Stern responded, telling Solomon the documents were now unavailable as they were subject to a FOIA lawsuit.
Furthermore, Stern told Solomon without explanation that “the Trump Presidential records” were unavailable for the Mandatory Declassification Review procedures under the Presidential Records Act.
August 8, 2022 - Trump’s Mar-a-Lago was raided by the FBI.
August 14, 2022 - Following the FBI raid, Solomon told Stern that the declassified Crossfire Hurricane records were Presidential records and asked what efforts had been made to retrieve them from the DOJ.
August 17, 2022 - Three days later, Stern replied, telling Solomon that the “bulk of the binder” was - for some unstated reason - intended to remain with the DOJ.
As Solomon’s filing notes, “the Trump White House always considered the Crossfire Hurricane binder a Presidential record and never intended to give up control over it.” Solomon closed his statement of facts by noting that by “making everchanging excuses, Biden’s DOJ stonewalled Solomon, denying him access in violation of the Presidential Records Act.” Solomon said Trump “ordered the creation of the Crossfire Hurricane binder to conduct his official duties and that the White House intended to retain control over the binder and its records at all relevant times.”
August 30, 2022 - A court filing by the DOJ includes a photo of documents seized by the FBI in their raid on Mar-a-Lago. It was later revealed that the government staged the picture by placing the colored cover sheets on top of the documents used in the picture. Documents were also mixed up by the FBI during the photo staging process.
“[If] the investigative team found a document with classification markings, it removed the document, segregated it, and replaced it with a placeholder sheet. The investigative team used classified cover sheets for that purpose.”
November 22, 2022 - In a November 22, 2022 letter to Gary Stern from the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI, the FBI notes that it “requests the assistance of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to provide the FBI access to the following information:”
The FBI goes on to list several pieces of information regarding the handling of Presidential records of President Trump. Notably, this request was placed after the August 8th raid of Mar-a-Lago. NARA has, and had at the time, no authority to provide these documents to the FBI.
March 17, 2023 - Talk of Trump’s impending first indictment began to circulate late on March 17, 2023 and by the next day the news was everywhere.
March 17, 2023 - Hunter filed a sweeping countersuit against John Paul Mac Isaac, the computer repair shop owner who had possession of Hunter’s abandoned laptop.
The lawsuit itself wasn’t all that important, but in language within the suit, Hunter legally admitted the data on his laptop was real. That was important. This was the first time there was a legal admission by Hunter that the information on the laptop was his.
March 30, 2023 - Trump formally indicted.
May 4, 2023 - Meeting between NARA, the FBI and the DOJ.
“A set of notes relating to the May 4th 2023 meeting shed additional light on the discussion. The note suggests that 19 of the responsive documents related to the Durham investigation and crossfire hurricane, and that those documents were already in DOJ and FBI possession.”
June 2023 - Although the exact date is not certain, the Department of Energy appears to have retroactively terminated Trump’s security clearances.
October 5, 2023 - Stern wrote in an internal NARA email that the release of a letter to Congress “can be timed with our public release of the Trump social media records ... as well as our release to the 1/6 Committee of responsive tweets on the day of January 6.”
Mr. Stern noted that NARA had “issues” getting President Trump’s “social media records” because the Trump White House didn’t “capture them through the use of third-party archiving tools.”
“I do not think that these problems are something that the AG/DOJ can deal with, but it could be appropriate to report them to Congress, especially since the January 6 Committee has specifically requested Trump’s Tweets from the day of January 6,” Mr. Stern wrote in the email.
Mr. Stern adds that the Biden White House counsel “is now also aware of this issue, and has asked that I keep them in the loop to the extent that we make any reference to the White House Office of Records Management.”
End
Very complete, but I’m having trouble following and could use a summary/road map.