“Fox & Friends” host Steve Doocy went against the show’s usual approach of softening up to Donald Trump, questioning on Wednesday the former president’s motives behind keeping classified government documents at his private residence in Mar-a-Lago long after his presidency.
The show and its three hosts were interviewing South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Trump ally, when Doocy brought up the FBI raid earlier this month on the former president’s home in Florida, which resulted in the confiscation of boxes of materials that included 11 packets of classified documents ― some of which were labeled with the highest classification markings.
“Ultimately, it comes down to why did he have all that secret stuff at Mar-a-Lago?” Doocy asked. “I know his team has said they declassified it, but that’s news to the agencies that those documents belong to.”
Investigators are looking at whether Trump violated several federal laws related to official and classified records, according to a redacted FBI affidavit released last week. Prosecutors with the Justice Department filed a 36-page brief late Tuesday detailing the sensitive documents found at Mar-a-Lago, as well as efforts by the former president and his team to obstruct their criminal investigation.
Prosecutors included an image of some of the documents discovered when the FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s residence. The photo shows five yellow folders on the floor marked top secret, as well as another that says “Secret SCI,” which means sensitive compartmentalized information. The remaining documents in the photo were edited to censor sensitive information.
“Those are the biggest secrets in the world. And apparently the former president went through ’em in January,” Doocy said. “Why wouldn’t he say, ‘Oh, you know what? I really need to turn that back over.’ Why did he have all that stuff at Mar-a-Lago?”
Noem responded by repeating Trump and his allies’ talking points that someone outside the Justice Department should investigate the incident in the name of “transparency.” The former president has requested a judge appoint a “special master” to review the confiscated documents to decide whether they should not be released due to “executive privilege” ― something prosecutors argue Trump does not have due to being a private citizen and it being the executive branch seeking the documents from him in the first place.
“What is this information? We don’t know what was in there,” Noem said of the classified documents that, as their label insinuates, contain sensitive government information intentionally kept classified for national security reasons. The governor also suggested without evidence that the FBI was either lying or had planted the documents at Trump’s residence.
“Let’s find out really what the process is, what is right, what’s precedent that other presidents have followed, and make sure this is done correctly.”
“Governor,” Doocy responded, “I don’t think any president has ever carted off that many documents to their house after they left the presidency.”