Washington Post: Trump employees moved boxes day before DOJ went to Mar-a-Lago

Two employees of Donald Trump moved boxes of papers at Mar-a-Lago a day before the Justice Department visited the former president's residence to collect classified documents , The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The Post, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that investigators view the timing - just before FBI agents and a prosecutor visited the Florida resort to recover the documents sought as part of a subpoena - as a potential sign of obstruction.

Investigators have evidence, the newspaper reported, that the former president kept classified documents in a visible place in his office and had shown them to others. He also allegedly conducted "a 'dress rehearsal' for moving sensitive papers" along with his team before they were subpoenaed in May 2022, according to the report.

CNN previously reported that following the May 2022 subpoena - which former president wanted to fight - federal prosecutors had a June meeting at Mar-a-Lago during which they were shown documents that had been held in a basement room. At the meeting, Trump lawyers turned over an envelope with 28 classified documents, according to a CNN breakdown.

The June meeting was later followed by a court-approved search of the property by the FBI in August, in part because investigators developed evidence that classified documents potentially remained at the residence, a source previously told CNN.

A lawyer for one of the Trump employees told the Post that his client had been trying to help Trump aide Walt Nauta and didn't know what the boxes held. "He was seen on Mar-a-Lago security video helping Walt Nauta move boxes into a storage area on June 2, 2022. My client saw Mr. Nauta moving the boxes and volunteered to help him," attorney John Irving told the Post.

Prosecutors have pressed for answers on why Nauta was seen on Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage moving boxes out of the storage room before and after the May subpoena, which he had said in one interview with investigators it was at Trump's direction.