Grand Jury in Florida Hears Testimony in Trump Documents Case

A federal grand jury in Miami continued hearing from witnesses Wednesday in the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s possession of hundreds of classified documents and other presidential records at his private club in Florida after he left office.

Among those who appeared for questions was Taylor Budowich, a former spokesperson for Trump who now is a top adviser at the super political action committee supporting Trump’s presidential candidacy.

It remained unclear what Budowich was asked by prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the inquiry, or what responses he provided. But Budowich was working for Trump during a period when the Justice Department began the investigation last year into his handling of the classified materials, after officials at the National Archives had spent much of 2021 trying to retrieve them.

After his appearance ended, Budowich posted a message on Twitter saying that he answered “every question honestly.” He described the grand jury inquiry as “a bogus and deeply troubling effort to use the power of government to ‘get’ Trump.”

His lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., declined to comment.

Budowich’s appearance came amid signs that Smith was nearing the end of the documents investigation and was poised to make a decision about whether to bring charges against Trump or some of his aides. The special counsel’s office is also conducting a separate inquiry in Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The status of that investigation seems to be lagging somewhat behind the classified documents case.

Most of the documents investigation has been conducted by a grand jury sitting in Washington, which has heard from numerous witnesses over the past several months, including some of Trump’s White House advisers; some low-level workers at Mar-a-Lago, his club and residence in Florida; and even more than 20 members of his Secret Service security detail.

Should prosecutors ultimately charge Trump — which he and some of his advisers are said to believe is likely — it remains an open question whether Smith’s team would file an indictment in Washington, Miami or perhaps in both cities.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/07/us/politics/trump-documents-florida-grand-jury.html">The New York Times</a>.