Top Trump adviser Kash Patel has testified over Mar-a-Lago secret documents, report says

Patel seen spending hours at the Washington courthouse

Kash Patel, a top adviser to Donald Trump, has reportedly testified before the federal grand jury investigating the documents seized from the former president's Florida estate.

Mr Patel spent several hours on 13 October before the jury at the courthouse in Washington. However, it was unclear if he answered questions or declined citing the Fifth Amendment, CNN reported.

He was seen in the halls of the federal courthouse mid-morning last Thursday and remained in the grand jury area till 1pm local time.

Stanley Woodward, one of Mr Patel's attorneys, declined to answer why the former White House aide was at the courthouse.

Mr Patel is one of the “handful of advisers” who face potential legal risk related to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation, according to the CNN report.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a court-approved search on 8 August at the Mar-a-Lago estate, seizing more than 11,000 documents, of which at least 100 were marked classified.

Mr Patel served as a national security and defence official during the Trump administration before becoming one of Mr Trump's designees to interact with the National Archives and the Justice Department.

The adviser earlier claimed that he “personally witnessed” the 45th president declassifying records before he left the presidency. “On the way out of the White House he issued further declassification orders declassifying whole sets of documents,” he told Fox News.

“He can literally stand over a set of documents and say these are now declassified and that is done with definitive action immediately,” Mr Patel added.

The adviser was subpoenaed by a grand jury weeks ago for documents he had of any communications related to the handling of Trump records, a source told CNN.

However, it’s not known how he responded to the subpoena.

In the latest flurry of purpoted evidence against Mr Trump, one of his former employees told federal agents the former president asked that boxes of records be moved within his Florida residence after receiving a government subpoena demanding their return.

Trump aide Walt Nauta was caught on security camera moving boxes out of a storage area at the centre of the probe, the New York Times reported last week.

The testimony of the former employee along with the surveillance footage obtained by the Justice Department represents some of the strongest known evidence to date of possible obstruction of justice by the former president.