- An empty "classified" folder is on display at the 45-themed bar in Trump Tower, per MSNBC.
- FBI agents recovered 48 empty folders marked "classified" during the Mar-a-Lago raid.
- It is not immediately clear if the folder at Trump Tower is a replica or the real deal.
The 45 Wine & Whiskey Bar in Trump Tower in New York has filled with all things Donald Trump; a photo of the former president with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, a signed trade deal, and even a Trump-branded football.
But sitting inconspicuously inside a display case in the Manhattan bar is an empty "classified" folder, MSNBC reported.
—The Good Liars (@TheGoodLiars) August 10, 2022
The folder may have been sitting there idly for months, but it's now attracting attention following the release of the broadest and most detailed inventory of items found at Mar-a-Lago during last month's raid.
It was revealed in the inventory that 48 empty folders marked "CLASSIFIED" were recovered from Trump's Florida property by FBI agents in August, bearing a resemblance to the one on Fifth Avenue.
Online pranksters The Good Liars first shared a photo of the suspect folder at the Trump Tower bar on August 10 — days after the raid. But following the release of the detailed inventory, the YouTube duo retweeted it on Friday.
It's not immediately clear whether the empty folder on display at Trump Tower is a replica or the real deal. Still, the former president's ex-attorney Michael Cohen raised the possibility that documents could be stashed in Trump Tower and his other homes.
Insider contacted the 45 Wine & Whiskey Bar and Trump Tower for comments but did not immediately receive a response.
Insider's Yelena Dzhanova reported that the newly released inventory also showed Trump kept personal items, like newspaper cuttings and photos, alongside documents marked top secret or confidential. According to the inventory, FBI agents found more than 10,000 government documents during their search of Mar-a-Lago.
Under the Presidential Records Act, Trump should have turned all his records over upon leaving office. The Justice Department is now investigating whether Trump violated any laws on the handling of government documents.
On MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes," Chris Hayes raised the possibility that Trump was "hoarding documents at Mar-a-Lago to use them as decorations at his new hotel bar."
He said this is just one theory of many seeking to answer why the former president brought so many empty folders from the White House to Mar-a-Lago. "Truth is, we don't know," Hayes said. "We might never know."
Chuck Rosenberg, an attorney and formerly a senior FBI official, told MSNBC that it's a "headscratcher." He said he's also confused about whether the folders were empty when they were taken to Mar-a-Lago, or the secret contents disappeared at Trump's country club, per MSNBC.