Scott Olson\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n The federal probe has been led by Smith, who was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents as his presidency ended.<\/p>\n Smith is also overseeing the investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n Central to Smith’s efforts in the classified documents investigation is determining whether lawyers representing the former president falsely certified in response to a grand jury subpoena that Trump had returned all classified records to the government, or whether the same Trump tried to hide records he might have illegally. retained<\/p>\n As ABC News previously reported, prosecutors in the special counsel’s office have presented compelling preliminary evidence that Trump knowingly and deliberately misled his own lawyers about his retention of classified material after he left office earlier this year. 2021, according to sources who described the contents of a sealed document. of a superior federal judge.<\/p>\n In early 2022, sources told ABC News, National Archives officials asked the Justice Department to investigate Trump’s handling of White House records after the National Archives in January recovered 15 boxes of records from the Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that had been improperly taken. in violation of the Presidential Records Act.<\/p>\n Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2023, March 4, 2023, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Alex Brandon\/AP, FILE<\/span><\/p>\n The DOJ investigation reached a critical point on August 8, 2022, when FBI agents searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.<\/p>\n Federal investigators seized more than 100 classified documents during the search, according to a detailed unsealed inventory list. In Trump’s office alone, there were 43 empty folders confiscated with classified banners.<\/p>\n The property inventory list also showed agents gathered more than 11,000 unclassified documents or photographs, all described as US government property.<\/p>\n Since the August search, Trump and his legal team have found additional classified documents and received additional subpoenas for information the government believes may still be in Trump’s possession.<\/p>\n The former president, who pleaded not guilty in April to unrelated criminal charges of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made in the days before the 2016 election, has said he will stand in the 2024 presidential race despite any allegations.<\/p>\n In addition to the Smith probes, Trump is also under investigation in Georgia for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in that state.<\/p>\n ABC News’ John Santucci and Alexander Mallin contributed to this report. <\/p>\n![\"PHOTO:](\"https:\/\/s.abcnews.com\/images\/Politics\/trump-1-ap-er-230512_1683908822892_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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