Photos have emerged that appear to show torn documents in toilets in President Donald Trump's White House.
If proven, the photos revealed by New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman may show Trump tried to destroy documents.
The pictures, shared with Axios, show two different toilets with what seems to be Trump's handwriting on them. One of them is believed to be in the White House, the other from a trip spent by the president abroad.
Haberman claims that "Mr Trump was discarding documents this way was not widely known within the West Wing, but some aides were aware of the habit, which he engaged in repeatedly."
A spokesperson for Trump said the claims were "desperate".
They said: "There’s enough people willing to fabricate stories like this in order to impress the media class — a media class who is willing to run with anything, as long as it [is] anti-Trump."
Trump is already hinting at a run in the 2024 presidential election and still falsely disputes he lost the last one to Joe Biden.
It has previously been claimed by ex-Trump White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman that the president would sometimes chew torn-up documents.
She told MSNBC: "[There are] certainly things that I’m sure cannot be accounted for because Donald Trump became very, very aware that a lot of these sensitive documents would at some point be made public."
It was also reported a bunch of documents were taken from the White House from Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, to the National Archives.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) said: "In mid-January 2022, NARA arranged for the transport from the Trump Mar-a-Lago property in Florida to the National Archives of 15 boxes that contained Presidential records, following discussions with President Trump’s representatives in 2021."
Under the Presidential Records Act, US presidents are legally required not to destroy evidence. Trump reportedly had a habit of tearing up documents as he left a meeting meaning aides had to tape them back together in order for them to be sent to the National Archives.
According to prosecutors, the former president is "wrongfully retaining presidential records that are the property of the United States, and which constitute part of the permanent historical record of the prior administration"."
After it ended in the unsavoury and alarming storming of the Capitol building in Washington DC by rioting supporters of Trump, Trump's presidency has come under scrutiny since it ended.
The hearings into January 6, 2021 revealed how Trump's staff said they attempted to convince him he had indeed lost the election fair and square.
Ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson claimed that when Trump heard protesters shouting about hanging Vice-President Mike Pence, the 45th president said he "deserves it."
