An attorney for Donald Trump said the latest classified folder turned over to investigators was just that ― a folder, and a folder alone ― which the former president used to block a light that was bothering him at night.
Timothy Parlatore downplayed the folder on CNN as “one of the more humorous aspects of this whole thing” and claimed it “means nothing” because it was empty.
He said the folder marked “Classified Evening Summary” was found in Trump’s bedroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“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,” Parlatore said. “So he took the manilla folder and he put it over it so that it would keep the light down so he could sleep at night.”
He claimed Justice Department investigators “went crazy” when they learned about the folder and issued a subpoena for it.
“Now the president has to find a different way to keep the blue light out of his eyes,” he said.
It’s not clear what happened to the document or documents that were originally inside the folder.
Dozens of classified documents were found at Mar-a-Lago during a search last summer. Since then, documents have also been found at several of President Joe Biden’s private locations as well as at the home of former Vice President Mike Pence.
A special counsel is looking into the documents found at Trump and Pence locations, while another special counsel is looking at those in Biden’s possession.