The FBI recovered 11 sensitive documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in searches agents conducted last Monday. According to The Wall Street Journal, some were considered “top secret” and the content was so sensitive that they could only be viewed at special government facilities.
According to The Guardian, which had access to the arrest warrant served by the DBI in the raid on the former White House leader’s home, Trump is under investigation for possible violations of the Espionage Act. In addition to violations of the Espionage Act, Trump is also being investigated for alleged obstruction of justice and destruction of federal government records, according to the newspaper.
In the list of all the documents, memorabilia, photographs, a handwritten note, and Donald Trump’s clemency grant to Roger Stone that the FBI seized, there are four sets of “top secret” documents, three sets of “secret” material, and three considered “confidential”. .”, but its content should not be revealed, says The New York Times. says the defense Trump removed the secret nature of the documents before withdrawing themwhen he was still president, but the FBI suggests that the procedure for doing so was not strictly followed.
In the 20 boxes with material taken from Mar-a-Lago there are also Information that the former US president will have collected about Emmanuel Macron. The list of all items taken from Trump’s mansion is seven pages long and includes a search warrant issued by a Florida state judge, but no reference to the evidence that prompted the investigation. The warrant was issued on August 5, but the raids were not carried out until three days later.
However, the list clarifies the points in the mansion where the FBI entered: “Office 45” (an office of Donald Trump) and “all storage rooms and all other rooms or areas within the facility used or made available for the use of the former president and his staff; and boxes or documents that could be stored, including all the structures or buildings of the property”.
Taylor Budowich, a spokesperson for Donald Trump, suggested that this investigation is politically motivated. “oh The Biden administration is obviously under damage control after the operation fiasco, where they seized illustrated books of the President, a ‘handwritten note’ and declassified documents”. He added: “This invasion of President Trump’s home is not only unprecedented, it is unnecessary.”
But, according to The New York Times, even if the documents were no longer classified as secret on the orders of Donald Trump, that does not mean that the former US president could take them out of the White House and keep them.
Some of the laws mentioned in the search warrant do not refer to the nature of the documents: only criminalize obtaining or withholding government records, even if they do not endanger national security. There are also laws that consider certain documents related to national security and secret, even if they are not so classified in the records.
Mary McCord, who once held a high rank in the Justice Department’s National Security Division and now heads Georgetown Law’s Constitutional Law and Protection Institute, confirmed to The New York Times that these are “highly sensitive documents with the potential to seriously harm national security of the United States, including the benefit of foreign agents.
Source: Observadora
