FBI agents who raided Donald Trump’s Florida home this week seized classified documents, including some labeled “top secret”, that the former US president illegally took with him when he left the White House, according to court information released Friday, August 12.
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. 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.
Several court documents were released Friday by a federal judge in Florida: the warrant authorizing the search that took place last Monday, and a long inventory of documents seized by FBI agents. In this list, is mentioned a set of classified documents “top-secret” – the highest US classification for a document – or ” secret “ Where “confidential”.
About thirty boxes were seized, as well as binders with photos and a handwritten note by which Donald Trump had granted his presidential pardon to his former partner Roger Stone.
No comment from the Elysée
The federal police also seized documents relating to the “President of France”. Contacted by Reuters, the Elysée declined to comment on these “information” that would have been in the possession of Donald Trump.
The former US president did not object to the contents of the search warrant being made public. “Not only will I not oppose the publication of the documents (…) but I will go further by ENCOURAGING their immediate publication”, he wrote Thursday evening the social network that he created Truth Social, he who had nevertheless refrained from making public the copy of the mandate he had received. He assured in a press release on Friday that the documents recovered by the police had all been declassified.
On the other hand, he denied on Friday that federal agents had been looking for documents related to the United States’ nuclear weapons, as reported on Thursday by the washington post.
“This nuclear weapons story is a hoax”, he wrote on Truth Social. Donald Trump considered that this information was to be put on the same level as the controversies concerning his links with Moscow and the two impeachment proceedings brought against him.
Political revenge, according to Donald Trump
The search was part of an investigation into documents that Donald Trump allegedly illegally took with him from the White House when his term ended in January 2021. The law requires US presidents to transmit all of his emails, letters and other working papers to the US 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.
The home of a former tenant of the White House had never before been searched. Merrick Garland, appointed by Joe Biden, the Democratic successor to Donald Trump, said Thursday during a press conference that he personally approved the search. “The department does not take such a decision lightly”, he said, adding that less intrusive means were usually preferred when possible. He added that the case took on a “important public interest”three months before the mid-term legislative elections.
This confirmation is very unusual, while law enforcement officials generally do not mention ongoing investigations, in particular to protect people’s rights. Unusually, also, it was Donald Trump himself who announced on Monday evening that his residence was being searched by FBI agents, accusing Joe Biden of engaging in political revenge.