The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue, said the investigation remained at a very early stage. It is not yet clear whether Justice Department officials have begun examining the materials in the boxes or seeking to interview those who may have seen them or participated in their assembly and relocation. The department is facing increasing political pressure to reveal its plans for the case. On Thursday, House Speaker Carolyn B. Maloney (DN.Y.) accused the Department of Justice of obstructing its committee’s investigation into the 15 boxes of files Trump transferred to his Palm Beach, Florida, estate. . In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Maloney claims that the Department of Justice is “interfering” in the investigation by preventing the National Archives from delivering a detailed list of the contents of the recovered boxes. If the department is planning an investigation, this may explain why legislators would not want to conduct an inventory of materials. It is unclear to what extent the Justice Department has already evaluated the contents of the boxes, which the National Archives arranged to retrieve from Mar-a-Lago in January – including clearly labeled documents, the Washington Post reported earlier. The Justice Department, however, has been in contact with the Archives to conduct its own investigation, said people familiar with the matter. Addressing the issue earlier, Garland said the department would “do what we always do under these circumstances – look at the facts and the law and get it from there.” Trump’s spokesman has previously defended his handling of the files. “It is clear that a normal and routine process is armed by anonymous government sources with political motives for circulating Fake News,” Taylor Budowich said in a statement in February. In a letter Thursday, Maloney said her committee needed further explanation as to why the Justice Department was blocking his request for an inventory of the files. “The Commission does not wish to interfere in any way with any possible or ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice,” Maloney wrote. “However, the Commission has not received any explanation as to why the Department is preventing NARA from providing information to the Commission on compliance with [Presidential Records Act]including non-classified information describing the contents of the 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago. “ An FBI spokeswoman told The Post: “We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.” The National Archives sent a letter to the commission late last month saying that based on the Archives’ “consultation” with the Ministry of Justice, the Archives were unable to “comment” and comply with the commission’s request. Instead, it referred the committee to the Office of Legislative Affairs of the Ministry of Justice for any further questions. Maloney asked the Justice Department to inform the committee by April 14 whether it would “inform NARA that it can cooperate fully with the Commission’s investigation, including providing the requested list of documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago.” .
