Search of Mar-a-Lago
FBI confiscates significant number of “top secret” documents from Trump – meanwhile he poisons against Obama
Former US President Donald Trump (archive image) has apparently stored secret documents that are considered “top secret” in his Mar-a-Lago estate
© Mandel Ngan / AFP
Former US President Donald Trump has criticized the search of his property as politically motivated. The list of confiscated items now shows that the FBI found top secret documents there. Trump, meanwhile, attacks his predecessor.
The FBI seized several top-secret documents during a search of former US President Donald Trump’s Florida home. This emerges from the receipt for the confiscated items, which a court in the US state of Florida published together with the search warrant on Friday at the request of US Attorney General Merrick Garland. Trump had previously written on the social network Truth Social, which he co-founded, that all documents had been released, so the secrecy had been lifted.
According to the FBI list, agents last Monday found a set of Top Secret/SCI documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, which are top secret and can only be viewed at special government facilities. Four of the confiscated sets of documents were classified as “Top Secret”, three more as “Secret” and the remaining three as “Confidential”. The Washington Post reported that the FBI was also looking for classified documents about nuclear weapons. Trump denied this and described the report on Friday as a “hoax”.
According to the list, the agents also confiscated numerous boxes, a pardon for Trump confidante Roger Stone, unspecified information about the “President of France” and two photo albums. The papers that have now been published say nothing about the content of the documents.
Three offenses listed
The search warrant lists three criminal offenses as possible grounds for possible seizures: collecting, transmitting or losing defense information, removing or destroying official documents, and destroying or altering documents to impede investigations. The first count – which falls under the US Espionage Act – carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, the second up to three years and the third up to 20 years.
Attorney General Garland stressed on Thursday that the presumption of innocence applies. At the same time, he underlined that a federal court had authorized the search “after the necessary determination of sufficient suspicion”. “I personally endorsed the decision to seek a search warrant.” Trump had sharply criticized the operation and accused the government of his successor, Joe Biden, of abusing the FBI for political purposes.
According to the White House, Biden did not know in advance about the search of the Trump property. The process is considered unprecedented in US history. Trump was not at his property during the search, but had made the search public himself.
US National Archives disagree with Donald Trump
Garland justified the request for publication of the search warrant and the receipt, among other things, with the public interest. Trump had also requested publication. However, he would have been free to publish the papers himself.
The US National Archives, which is responsible for storing presidential documents, meanwhile contradicted Trump’s claim that his predecessor Barack Obama kept secret documents after his departure. According to the legal requirements, after Obama left office in 2017, the National Archives “assumed the exclusive legal and physical custody of the Obama presidential records,” the state institution said on Friday. Around 30 million pages of non-classified documents are kept in the Chicago area. Classified information would be kept in Washington.
Donald Trump continues to poison Obama
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that had the authorities asked him about it, he would have given them all the documents. “The bigger problem is what are they going to do with the 33 million pages of documents, many classified, that President Obama took with him to Chicago?” he wrote in the same message. Trump had previously made the same claim without providing any supporting evidence.
In general, the truthfulness of Trump’s statements is disputed. The Washington Post fact checkers had proven Trump made more than 30,000 false or misleading statements during his four-year term from 2017 to 2021.
At the beginning of the year it became known that the National Archives suspected several boxes with confidential material in Mar-a-Lago. Trump finally handed over several documents to the agency in January. According to US media reports, there was then a further exchange between investigators and Trump’s lawyers. Officials suspected that Trump or his team were continuing to withhold important documents, the Washington Post wrote, citing anonymous sources.
Last Monday’s raid caused anger and outrage in right-wing circles. Several high-ranking politicians from the Republican Party, including former Vice President Mike Pence, had accused the Justice Department of a possible political motive for the raid.
Trump fans threaten the FBI – or attack immediately
In addition, there had been threats of violence against the FBI in online forums, which the agency’s director, Christopher Wray, described on Wednesday as “reprehensible and dangerous”.
Against this background, an incident in Cincinnati, Ohio, caused a stir on Thursday. There, according to the FBI, a man had tried to break into the federal police office. After a car chase, the man then pointed his gun at the police officers, who then shot and fatally injured him.
The attacker reportedly called on US citizens to take up arms on Donald Trump’s Internet service “Truth Social” before the attack. The Internet account of 42-year-old Ricky Shiffer, identified by the authorities, read: “This is your call to arms,” as several US media reported on Friday, citing screenshots.