A Department of Defense memo from the Obama era suggests the federal government might have possessed original copies of documents seized at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in 2022.
America First Legal, a conservative legal group, released what it claims is a newly uncovered memo from the Obama administration Department of Defense. This document allegedly confirms that the government might have already had originals of the classified documents involved in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution against President Trump.
The memo, titled ‘Memorandum of Understanding Entered into by Presidential Information Technology Community Entities’, dates back to 2015. It followed a Russian breach of the Executive Office of the President’s network in October 2014, prompting then-President Barack Obama to create the Presidential Information Technology Community (PITC) to enhance the executive branch's cybersecurity measures.
The PITC, comprised of representatives from federal agencies like the Department of Defense and Homeland Security, effectively solidified the principle that the president maintains control over the information he receives through the PITC network.
At the time, the executive action was publicly disclosed. However, America First Legal claims to have acquired a previously undisclosed memo confirming that the Department of Defense has been responsible for “operating and maintaining the information resources and information systems provided to the President, Vice President, and Executive Office of the President.”
AFL suggested in its press release that the memo could imply that the federal government has stored and retained Executive Office of the President documents, potentially including “a substantial amount, if not all, of President Trump’s classified documents.”
The documents were acquired through litigation against the Department of Defense, as stated in the press release by America First Legal. When asked about the memo, the Department of Defense told Fox News on Thursday that it had “nothing to offer.”
