The day earlier than a key assembly final yr between a lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and officers looking for the return of labeled paperwork in Mr. Trump’s possession, a upkeep employee on the former president’s personal membership noticed an aide transferring containers right into a storage room, in response to an individual conversant in the matter.

The upkeep employee provided to assist the aide — Walt Nauta, who was Mr. Trump’s valet within the White House — transfer the containers and ended up lending him a hand. But the employee had no concept what was contained in the containers, the particular person conversant in the matter stated. The upkeep employee has shared that account with federal prosecutors, the particular person stated.

The employee’s account is probably vital to prosecutors as they piece collectively particulars of how Mr. Trump dealt with delicate paperwork he took with him from the White House upon leaving workplace and whether or not he obstructed efforts by the Justice Department and the National Archives to retrieve them.

Mr. Trump was discovered to have been protecting a few of the paperwork within the storage room the place Mr. Nauta and the upkeep employee have been transferring containers on the day earlier than the Justice Department’s high counterintelligence official, Jay Bratt, traveled to Mar-a-Lago final June to hunt the return of any authorities supplies being held by the previous president.

Mr. Nauta and the employee moved the containers into the room earlier than a search of the storage room that very same day by M. Evan Corcoran, a lawyer for Mr. Trump who was in discussions with Mr. Bratt. Mr. Corcoran referred to as Justice Department officers that night time to arrange a gathering for the subsequent day. He believed that he didn’t have a safety clearance to move paperwork with labeled markings, an individual briefed on his determination stated.

Weeks earlier, the Justice Department had issued a subpoena demanding the return of the paperwork. Prosecutors have been attempting to find out whether or not Mr. Trump had paperwork moved round Mar-a-Lago or sought to hide a few of them after the subpoena.

Part of their curiosity is in attempting to find out whether or not paperwork have been moved earlier than Mr. Corcoran went by the containers himself forward of a gathering with Justice Department officers trying to retrieve them. Prosecutors have been asking witnesses concerning the roles of Mr. Nauta and the upkeep employee, whose title has not been publicly disclosed, in transferring paperwork round that point.

During his journey to Mar-a-Lago on June 3, Mr. Bratt was given a packet of roughly three dozen paperwork with labeled markings by a lawyer for Mr. Trump. Mr. Bratt was additionally given a letter, drafted by Mr. Corcoran however signed by one other lawyer for the previous president, testifying {that a} diligent search had been carried out for any further materials in response to the subpoena and that none had been discovered. Mr. Bratt was not given entry to look the storage room at that time.

The element concerning the timing of Mr. Nauta’s interplay with the upkeep employee was reported earlier by The Washington Post. A lawyer for Mr. Nauta declined to remark. A lawyer for the upkeep employee wouldn’t publicly talk about the matter.

The New York Times reported this month that prosecutors had obtained cooperation from a witness who labored at Mar-a-Lago. Among different issues, the witness offered investigators with an image of the storage room.

The investigation, overseen by the particular counsel, Jack Smith, has proven indicators of getting into its ultimate phases, and this week legal professionals for Mr. Trump — who’s the present front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — requested for a gathering to debate the case with Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, referred to as the investigation a “targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump that is concocted to meddle in an election and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House.”

He added that prosecutors have “harassed anyone and everyone who works, has worked or supports President Trump” and maintained that Mr. Trump had tried to cooperate with the Justice Department.

Prosecutors have been questioning witnesses about Mr. Trump’s potential motive for having the paperwork.

They have subpoenaed information about Mr. Trump’s business deals with international nations since he turned president. And they’ve been informed by witnesses that some aides could have recognized Mr. Trump nonetheless had paperwork in his possession after an preliminary 15 containers of presidency materials — discovered to comprise labeled paperwork — have been turned over to the National Archives in January 2022 after persistent efforts by the archives to retrieve the fabric, in response to individuals briefed on the matter.

Among probably the most distinguished witness in latest months has been Mr. Corcoran, who met with Mr. Bratt of the Justice Department final June and drafted the letter stating {that a} diligent search had turned up no additional paperwork.

In March, prosecutors efficiently pierced Mr. Corcoran’s attorney-client privilege with Mr. Trump beneath the crime-fraud exception, a provision of the legislation that can be utilized when investigators have proof {that a} lawyer’s providers could have been used within the fee of a criminal offense.

Judge Beryl A. Howell, then the chief decide presiding over grand jury issues in Federal District Court in Washington, found that prosecutors had sufficiently demonstrated evidence that Mr. Trump knowingly misled Mr. Corcoran about what paperwork he nonetheless possessed.

The Times previously reported that Judge Howell, writing in a sealed memorandum, described what she referred to as Mr. Trump’s “misdirection” in coping with the National Archives in 2021 and early final yr, saying it was “apparently a dress rehearsal” for a way he dealt with the grand jury subpoena final May, in response to an individual briefed on the memo’s contents.

In the sealed memo laying out her reasoning for ruling that Mr. Corcoran shouldn’t be protected by attorney-client privilege, Judge Howell touched on quite a few situations of what prosecutors thought-about to be proof of potential obstruction and wrongful possession of presidency materials on Mr. Trump’s half, the particular person briefed on its contents stated.

“Other evidence demonstrates that the former president willfully sought to retain classified documents when he was not authorized to do so, and knew it,” Ms. Howell wrote, the particular person stated.

Judge Howell acknowledged that the usual for assembly the crime-fraud exception is decrease than what could be required to deliver costs or win a jury verdict, in response to the particular person conversant in what she wrote. Still, the decide made clear she believed the federal government had met the brink, for each obstructing the grand jury continuing and “unauthorized retention of national defense information,” the particular person stated.

“The government has proffered sufficient evidence that the former president possessed tangible documents containing national defense information,” she wrote, including that they confirmed he “failed to deliver those documents to an officer entitled to receive them.”

At one other level, Judge Howell addressed Mr. Trump’s intent and way of thinking, saying that the federal government had additionally offered ample proof to satisfy its burden of displaying that the previous president had retained the labeled paperwork willfully, the particular person stated.

She additionally famous {that a} additional search of Trump properties late final yr, carried out by consultants on Mr. Trump’s behalf after stress from prosecutors, turned up further paperwork with labeled markings in his bed room at Mar-a-Lago, the particular person briefed on the doc stated.

“Notably, no excuse is provided as to how the former president could miss the classified-marked documents found in his own bedroom at Mar-a-Lago,” Judge Howell wrote, in response to the particular person briefed on the contents of her memo.