Prosecutors overseeing the federal criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified information have issued a subpoena to obtain information about Trump’s business dealings in seven foreign countries since he took office in 2017.
The New York Times reported that special counsel Jack Smith issued the subpoena to the Trump Organization for its records related to its “licensing and development dealings” in China, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman.
The report noted that while the Trump Organization did not do any foreign deals while Trump was in office, the former president did make a deal with a Saudi-based real estate company for a project in Oman just before he announced his third presidential campaign last fall.
The subpoena sought records about Trump’s dealings with the Saudi-owned golf league LIV Golf — which has held tournaments at some of Trump’s golf courses.
CNN reported last week that prosecutors have obtained notes that Trump attorney Evan Corcoran took last spring in which the former president asked about pushing back on a subpoena that he received to turn over any classified materials that he had in his possession.
The notes were taken before federal investigators met with Trump’s legal team and they said that they had turned over all classified information in the president’s possession. Several weeks later, the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago and found more classified material at the residence.
The significance of the notes from Trump’s lawyer is that it gives prosecutors a potential window into Trump’s thinking as he has offered “shifting explanations” for why he did not return all the classified material, the report said.
The notes were obtained after a federal judge voided attorney-client privilege between Trump and his attorney because the ruling said there was enough evidence to suggest that Trump used the lawyer in furtherance of a crime, the report said.
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Another recent development in the investigation happened last week when the National Archives informed the special counsel that it is prepared to turn over 16 records that allegedly showed that Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the process that Trump would have to go through to declassify information while he was president. The records are set to be turned over on Wednesday unless a court order blocks the National Archives from doing so.