The US Justice Department says it has evidence that classified documents were deliberately hidden from FBI investigators when they entered former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in search of documents that only concern officialdom.

According to "Reuters" quoted by the Economic newspaper, the evidence was presented this Tuesday in a 54-page document alleging for the first time in public that Trump's aides falsely lied when they said the documents in question had been returned to the White House following his leaving the presidency in January 2021.

It also says there is evidence that "government records were likely hidden and removed from the storage room and that efforts were made to obstruct the government's investigation," the Justice Department reiterates.

On Thursday, Judge Aileen Cannon will preside over a court hearing on the former president's request to appoint an expert to conduct an insider review of the documents, many of them classified, seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago on August 8.

Recall that the US Justice Department has confirmed the opening of an investigation and is still searching for the classified documents that Donald Trump allegedly kept in his possession after leaving the White House.