The search warrant for Donald Trump’s home, which had been placed under seal, has been made public by a federal judge in Florida, along with an inventory of the documents seized. Among these is one concerning the “President of France”.
After several days of controversy, the FBI unveiled this Friday the reasons for search of Donald Trump’s home, in Florida. US federal police seized documents marked “top secret” during their search of the former president’s home. FBI investigators suspect the Republican of having violated an American law on espionage which very strictly regulates the possession of confidential documents linked to national security, some of which must only be consulted or seen in secure buildings. Several court documents were released Friday by a Florida judge: the warrant authorizing the search, before it was conducted, and a long inventory of documents seized Monday by FBI agents.
Documents on the “President of France”
In this list is mentioned a set of documents classified as “top secret” or “secret” or “confidential”, as well as a document “1A Info re: president of France”, without further details. About thirty boxes were seized, as well as binders with photos and a handwritten note, according to this inventory. According to experts, invoking this law does not mean that the former president risks being accused of espionage. “The Espionage Act includes a bunch of crimes that have nothing to do with espionage”said the lawyer specializing in these issues Bradley Moss, on Twitter.
The operation, carried out in the residence of Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago in Florida, had provoked the fury of his supporters evoking a “political persecution”, as well as many Republican tenors. Thursday, the Minister of Justice Merrick Garland had, in an exceptional speech, asked that a judge make public this warrant authorizing the search so that his reasons are known to all. This request – very unusual – had been favorably received by Donald Trump. “Not only will I not oppose the publication of the documents (…) but I will go further by ENCOURAGING their immediate publication”, wrote Thursday evening the billionaire, who had nevertheless refrained from making public the copy of the mandate which he had received. The ex-president assured in a press release on Friday that the documents recovered by the police had all been declassified.
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Earlier in the day, this Friday, the washington post citing unnamed sources but “close to the investigation“, had revealed that the FBI agents were in particular looking for classified documents relating to nuclear weapons. the wall street journal then claimed that the authorities had found during this search a “around twenty” boxes including top secret classified documents and information on the “President of France”. The American daily claimed to have had access to a three-page inventory seized on Monday, including documents classified top secret or confidential, photos and a handwritten note. This inventory is part of a seven-page document including the search warrant, adds the newspaper which assures that this inventory contains information concerning “the President of France”. Without specifying whether it was Emmanuel Macron.
“Important public interest”
Until then, speculation regarding the reasons for this search leaned more in favor of the involvement of the former president in the storming of the capitol, in January 2020. Monday’s search was the first ever to target a former president of the United States. Thursday, during his brief televised address, Merrick Garland had assured to have “personally approved” this search. “The ministry does not take this kind of decision lightly”underlined the Minister of Justice, adding that the case took on a “important public interest”three months before the mid-term legislative elections.
The law obliges the American presidents to transmit all of his e-mails, letters and other working documents to the American National Archives. However, Donald Trump had taken, when he left the White House in January 2021, fifteen boxes of documents, which agents from the Archives had to recover in January, already at Mar-a-Lago. Outraged by the search, Donald Trump told Truth Social on Monday that his lawyers were cooperating “fully” with the authorities when “Suddenly and without warning, Mar-a-Lago was raided, at 6:30 am, by a VERY large number of officers”. He complained in particular about the fact that the FBI agents had “searched the closets of the first lady” Melania Trump. On Wednesday, he even suggested that the federal police may have had “square” false evidence against him during this operation.
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