Trump wrote to-do lists on classified documents: Report

Former President Donald Trump scrawled to-do lists for one of his Mar-a-Lago assistants on documents with classified markings, according to a report. 

Molly Michael, a former White House executive assistant who continued working for Trump after his presidency, told federal investigators that on more than one occasion she received tasks from the 77-year-old former president written on the back of notecards with visible classification markings, according to ABC News. 

The notecards reportedly contained information related to phone calls with foreign leaders or other international-related matters.

It’s unclear if any of the notecards are among the classified documents that Trump is charged with unlawfully retaining.

Michael, whom multiple outlets have identified as “Trump Employee 2” in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment related to Trump’s handling of sensitive White House documents, transferred the notecards to the FBI after she discovered that agents did not take them after the Aug. 8, 2022, search of Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., club and residence. 

The Trump aide also told federal investigators that she was growing increasingly concerned with how the ex-commander in chief was handling requests from the National Archives for White House material that she knew was being stashed at Mar-a-Lago, according to the report.  

Trump allegedly told Michael, “You don’t know anything about the boxes,” upon learning of the FBI’s interest in speaking with her. 

The former president pleaded not guilty in June to 37 counts related to his handling of classified White House documents.  

Smith’s indictment describes “Trump Employee 2,” as the individual who photographed the boxes being stored at Mar-a-Lago in order to show the former president and someone who assisted Trump’s valet and co-defendant Walt Nauta move the presidential documents around property, including to and from Trump’s residence. 

Michael reportedly told investigators that Trump grew reluctant about cooperating with the government after agreeing to turn over 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives out of about 90 that were being held at Mar-a-Lago. 

The former president allegedly asked her to spread the message that no more boxes existed even after she pointed out to him that many people, including maintenance workers on the property, had seen the stacks and stacks of boxes. 

Trump admitted in January that he kept folders after his presidency that once housed classified papers because “they were a ‘cool’ keepsake.”​

“I saved hundreds of them,” the former president said in a Truth Social post, explaining that the classified papers within the folders were collected by officials after White House briefings. 

Trump even used an empty folder that said “Classified Evening Summary” to cover a light in his bedroom at Mar-a-Lago, ex-Trump lawyer Timothy Parlatore told CNN earlier this year. 

“He has one of those landline telephones next to his bed, and it has a blue light on it, and it keeps him up at night. So he took the manilla folder and put it over so it would keep the light down so he could sleep at night,” Parlatore claimed. 

The folder was reportedly given to federal prosecutors in December 2022. 

“It’s just this folder. It says ‘Classified Evening Summary’ on it. It’s not a classification marking. It’s not anything that is controlled in any way. There is nothing illegal about it,” Parlatore added.