(by Benedetta Guerrera) (ANSA) - ROME, 10 FEB - Embarrassing details continue to emerge about Donald Trump's handling or elimination of official documents, which seem to evoke a possible cover-up attempt as in the days of Watergate.
After the boxes full of papers brought "by mistake" to his residence in Mar-a-Lago instead of being consigned to the state archives, a book reveals that the former president used to throw important papers in one of the White House toilets.
According to the Washington Post, some of the documents were clearly marked confidential, including some 'top secret' level papers.
It's still unclear whether the Justice Department will launch an investigation.
The thesis is also supported by the New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman in her 'Confidence Man' which reconstructs Trump's parable from businessman to president.
Haberman spoke to some of her staff who told her they found her "often" one of the White House bathrooms "clogged with crumpled paper."
The former president was quick to deny the news on Twitter branding it as a lie invented to sell copies but if it were true the image of the commander in chief who hides in the bathroom to get rid of official documents would be bordering on ridicule.
The House Investigative Commission for Fraud and Abuse Control has opened an investigation into potential violations of Trump's Presidential Acts Act and asked the National Archives to hand over communications with the former president about missing or destroyed documents. as well as the description of the material found in the 15 boxes recovered from his villa in Florida.
According to the New York Times, those documents also include classified information, in addition to the famous letters the former president had received from Kim Jong-un and the note that his predecessor Barack Obama left him on the desk of the Oval Office in 2017. In the Haberman's book argues, among other things, that Trump is still in contact with the North Korean leader.
"He had a fixation on his relationship with Kim and has been talking about having some sort of correspondence or dialogue with him," the reporter said.
Meanwhile, the House commission investigating the January 6 attack has discovered gaps in the official telephone records of the White House.
In practice, the records show few calls from Trump at times when investigators know that the then president was on the phone.
At the moment there is no evidence that the records have been tampered with and it is known that during those dramatic hours the president used his personal cellphone as well as that of his assistants and his confidants.
For this reason, the commission asked the telephone companies to hand over the data contained in the personal cell phones of some members of the
entourage of the president, including son Eric and the girlfriend of his other son, Donald jr, Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Using the phones of his closest associates was a habit Trump had throughout his tenure.
But the gaps in the January 6 records represent a major obstacle for the commission that is trying to piece together what the president was doing at those crucial moments.