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| Photo Credit: AP. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — When a government document mysteriously appeared earlier this week in the highest profile case in the federal court system, it had the hallmarks of another explosive storyline in the Justice Department’s investigation into classified records stored at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
The document
purported to be from the U.S. Treasury Department, claimed that the agency had
seized sensitive documents related to last month’s search at Mar-a-Lago and
included a warrant ordering CNN to preserve “leaked tax records.”
The document
remained late Thursday on the court docket, but it is a clear fabrication. A
review of dozens of court records and interviews by The Associated Press
suggest the document originated with a serial forger behind bars at a federal
prison complex in North Carolina.
The incident
also suggests that the court clerk was easily tricked into believing it was
real, landing the document on the public docket in the Mar-a-Lago search
warrant case. It also highlights the vulnerability of the U.S. court system and
raises questions about the court’s vetting of documents that purport to be
official records.
The document
first appeared on the court’s docket late Monday afternoon and was marked as a
“MOTION to Intervene by U.S. Department of the Treasury.”
The
document, sprinkled with spelling and syntax errors, read, “The U.S. Department
of Treasury through the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Marshals
Service have arrested Seized Federal Securities containing sensitive documents
which are subject to the Defendant Sealed Search Warrant by the F.B.I. arrest.”
It cited a
federal statute for collecting financial records in federal investigations. The
document also included the two supposed warrants, one that claimed to be sent
to CNN in Atlanta and another to a towing company in Michigan.
Those
supposed warrants, though, are identical to paperwork filed in another case in
federal court in Georgia brought by an inmate at the prison medical center in
Butner, North Carolina. The case was thrown out, as were the array of other
frivolous lawsuits the man has filed from his prison cell.
The man has
been in custody for several years since he was found not competent to stand
trial after an arrest for planting a fake explosive outside the Guardian
Building, a skyscraper in Detroit. Since his incarceration, he has filed a
range of lawsuits and has impersonated the Treasury Department, claimed to be a
federal trustee and claimed to be a lawyer for the Justice Department, a review
of court records shows.
In the
Georgia case, the man alleged that Trump and others had “acquired ‘millions of
un- redacted classified tax returns and other sensitive financial data, bank
records and accounts of banking and tax transactions of several million’
Americans and federal government agencies,” court documents say.
The judge in
that case called his suit “fanatic” and “delusional,” saying there was no way
to “discern any cognizable claim” from the incoherent filings.
The man has
repeatedly impersonated federal officials in court records and has placed tax
liens on judges using his false paperwork, two people familiar with the matter
told the AP. Because of his history as a forger, his mail is supposed to be
subjected to additional scrutiny from the Bureau of Prisons.
It’s unclear
how the documents — the fake motion and the phony warrants — ended up at the
court clerk’s office at the courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida.
A photocopy
of an envelope, included in the filing, shows it was sent to the court with a
printed return address of the Treasury Department’s headquarters in Washington.
But a postmark shows a Michigan ZIP code, and a tracking number on the envelope
shows it was mailed Sept. 9 from Clinton Township, Michigan, the inmate’s
hometown.
The AP is
not identifying the inmate by name because he has a documented history of
mental illness and has not been charged with a crime related to the filing.
“There is
simply nothing indicating that he has any authorization to act on behalf of the
United States,” the judge in the Georgia case wrote.
But despite
the clear warning signs — including a stamp noting the Georgia case number on
the phony warrants — the filing still made its way onto the docket.
Spokespeople
for the Justice Department and the Treasury Department would not comment. They
declined to answer on the record when asked if the document was false and why
the government had not addressed it.
Representatives
in the court clerk’s office and the magistrate judge overseeing the search
warrant case did not respond to requests for comment.
Associated
Press writers Eric Tucker and Fatima Hussein in Washington, Kate Brumback in
Atlanta and Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed to this
report.