WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former employee of Donald Trump told federal agents the former president asked that boxes of records be moved within his Florida residence after receiving a government subpoena demanding their return, according to a Washington Post report.
The testimony of the key witness, coupled with surveillance footage the Justice Department also obtained, represent some of the strongest known evidence to date of possible obstruction of justice by the former Republican president.
The New York Times separately reported on Wednesday that Trump aide Walt Nauta was captured on security camera footage from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach moving boxes out of a storage area at the center of the investigation.
It was unclear whether the employee cited in Wednesday's Washington Post report was Nauta or a different staff member, according to the Times, which cited three unnamed people familiar with the matter.
The FBI conducted a court-approved search on Aug. 8 at Mar-a-Lago, seizing more than 11,000 documents, including about 100 marked as classified.
The employee who was working at Mar-a-Lago was cooperating with the Justice Department and has been interviewed multiple times by federal agents, the Post reported. The witness initially denied handling sensitive documents and in subsequent conversations with agents admitted to moving boxes at Trump’s request, it added, citing people familiar with the situation.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the Washington Post's report, and could not immediately be reached for comment on the New York Times article.
Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich, in a statement on Thursday, reiterated Trump's accusation that the August search was "unwarranted and unconstitutional" and accused the Justice Department of leaking to the media in an "act of intimidation and tampering."
Budowich did not say whether Nauta was still employed by Trump. A lawyer for Nauta, a former military aide who the Times said left the White House to work at Mar-a-Lago, declined to comment to the newspaper, which said Nauta was not formally cooperating with the department's probe.
In a post on his social media platform late Wednesday, Trump again denied any wrongdoing, posting: "There is no 'crime' having to do with the storage of documents at Mar-a-Lago."
The document investigation is one of several legal woes Trump is facing as he considers whether to run again for president in 2024.
New York state's attorney general recently filed a civil lawsuit accusing Trump and three of his adult children of fraud and misrepresentation in preparing financial statements from the family company.
The Trump Organization also is set to go on trial on Oct. 24 on New York state criminal tax fraud charges.
In Georgia, a grand jury in Fulton County is probing efforts by Trump to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat.