Big brother of Sandy Hook victim ‘shocked’ by Mar-a-Lago photo evidence

• JT Lewis, whose brother Jesse died at Sandy Hook, was “shocked” by an evidence photo at Mar-a-Lago.
• It showed that a box containing classified documents also contained a letter Trump sent him in 2018.
• “It was nice of him to keep the letter,” Lewis said.

In 2018, JT Lewis, whose younger brother Jesse died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, received a signed letter from Donald Trump. He keeps it in a frame above his living room couch, where he sees it every day.

He was “shocked” this week when an image of the letter appeared in a widely publicized prosecution filing in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

The image shows an unsigned draft of the letter he treasures, sitting in a box, on top of other presidential memorabilia, including newspaper articles and notes on White House stationery.

It is one in a series of photos that prosecutors and special counsel Jack Smith say show Trump mixing presidential “memorabilia” with national secrets.

“It was nice of him to keep the letter,” Lewis said Wednesday.

“It’s verbatim” what Trump sent him in June 2018, he said. “Except Jack Smith has blacked out my name and it’s not signed,” he added. “My copy is signed, of course.”

In the letter, Trump thanks Lewis for coming to the White House “for discussions regarding the safety of our schools.”

Trump’s letter tells Lewis that the nation will forever remember the 2012 tragedy, in which 20 children and seven adults died, and it thanks Lewis for being “a significant example of the healing power of aid to others” through his organization, Newtown Helps Rwanda.

Lewis and his mother, Scarlett Lewis, were invited to the White House six years after the Sandy Hook shooting and shortly after the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting to speak with Trump about his national school safety initiative.

Both mother and son were school safety activists at the time, JT through the now-defunct Rwanda Initiative and Scarlett through the still-active ChooseLoveMovement.com, which campaigns for life skills programs for children to help prevent more shootings.

“That’s part of how he healed, by helping other people,” Scarlett Lewis told Business Insider on Wednesday about JT, who was 12 when his 6-year-old brother died.

“To have a president recognize him, write him a letter and sign it personally was very meaningful to JT,” she said. “And then to see that that was something that he kept was very, very moving,” she said of Trump.

“He was shocked that Trump kept the letter.”

JT Lewis said Wednesday that he remains a big Trump fan.

“I was actually with him two days ago in New Orleans at a fundraiser,” he said.

“We were able to catch up. I wish it had happened before this,” he said of the letter that resurfaced. “I would have talked to him about it.”

Jesse McCord Lewis died shortly after shouting “Run!” while directing classmates to safety, according to his obituary and several news reports. June 30 would have been his 13th birthday.

Rather than fleeing himself, he stayed to help a “beloved teacher,” Victoria Soto, as she lay dying, Scarlett Lewis told BI.

“Jesse saved nine classmates, and a lot of kids made headlines, graduated high school and credited him with saving their lives,” the mother said.