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Trump pushed to preserve White House docs because he was convinced Biden would destroy evidence of a 'Deep State' plot against him, report says

Sep 8, 2022, 17:13 IST
Business Insider
Former President Donald Trump.Brandon Bell/Getty Images
  • Trump told aides at the end of his term to preserve documents about the Russia probe, per Rolling Stone.
  • He reportedly believed they would prove a "Deep State" plot against him and tried to get them declassified.
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Former President Donald Trump pushed aides to preserve documents from the Russia investigation that he believed exonerated him, because he believed that Joe Biden would destroy them, Rolling Stone reported.

Trump told multiple people at the end of his presidency, including some who work in the White House, that he was worried that the incoming administration would destroy the papers, the report said.

He was afraid they would shred, bury, or destroy the documents, Rolling Stone reported.

Trump, the report said, believed the documents would reveal a so-called "Deep State" plot against him — a theory he and allies have regularly repeated, which claimed that people within the government were trying to frustrate him and his goals.

His strategy, therefore, was to seek for them to be declassified, Rolling Stone reported.

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Trump's team did not respond to Rolling Stone's request for comment.

Trump tried to declassify documents about the Russia investigation during his presidency, and some were ultimately declassified despite opposition from intelligence officials.

Trump is currently in trouble over how White House documents were treated after his presidency.

The FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home on August 8, and unsealed court documents showed the search was part of an investigation into whether Trump had violated three laws, including the Espionage Act, dictating the treatment of government documents.

Agents took around 11,000 documents, some of which were classified and marked as "top secret," court filings show.

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It is not clear if any of the documents at the resort related to the Russia investigation.

But Trump, Rolling Stone noted, said on a Newsmax radio show on September 1 that he believed the FBI raided his home because they were looking for something related to the Russia probe.

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