The US Justice Department recently told the legal team of former President Donald Trump that it believes Trump may not have handed back all the documents he took when he left the White House, the The New York Times reported.
Anonymous sources familiar with the matter said top department officials, including counterintelligence chief Jay Bratt, told Trump's attorneys that he has an ongoing obligation to return any classified documents. The New York Times story was then backed up by other reporting by US broadcaster CNN and newspaper The Wall Street Journal.
The reported correspondence is the strongest indication yet that investigators are seeking records believed to still be in Trump's possession.
It's not clear whether the Justice Department has gathered new evidence that Trump remains in possession of certain documents, nor whether the department has a concrete plan to recover them.
Documents still missing from archives
The US government has uncovered more than 300 classified documents since Trump left office. They include dozens of documents marked "top secret" or "confidential" that were found at Trump's Mar-a-Lago mansion during an FBI raid on August 8.
Access to those documents has since been the subject of an ongoing legal battle.
In late September, the National Archives and Records Administration told Congress it hadn't received all of the presidential records that were supposed to have been turned over.