The FBI raided Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate looking for classified documents on Aug. 8. The news hasn’t stopped since, with a new development — whether it be a Trump social media meltdown or the release of a new set of search documents — unfolding on what’s seemed like a daily basis. It’s been a little hard to keep up with all that’s transpired this month, not to mention the eight months since the National Archives first hauled 15 boxes of material out of Mar-a-Lago in January. Here’s a brief refresher on the former president’s classified document saga, which doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon:
Jan. 20, 2021: Trump leaves the White House on the morning of Biden’s inauguration. The administration turns over a collection of documents to the National Archives, but the Archives has noted that some of them had been torn up and taped back together.
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May 6: The National Archives reaches out to Trump’s representatives about retrieving missing records that belong to the Archives. Discussions between the Archives and Trump’s team continue throughout the rest of the year.
Dec. 2021: Trump’s team informs the Archives that there are 12 boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago ready for retrieval.
THE INITIAL 15 BOXES
Jan. 18, 2022: The National Archives retrieves 15 boxes of materials from Mar-a-Lago that the Archives said should have been turned over before Trump left office. The boxes contained Trump’s self-described “love letters” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, but also, as The New York Times reported in August, documents from multiple intelligence agencies “spanning a variety of topics of national security interest.”
Feb. 9: The National Archives refers the matter to the Justice Department, writing in an email that among the 15 boxes was “a lot of classified records” and that “of most