One thing is clear: Trump took documents with him to Florida after his time in the White House. Even the ex-president does not deny that. But what if the documents are top secret?
More and more explosive details come to light after the search of Donald Trump’s property in the US state of Florida, which put the ex-president in need of explanation. According to a report by the New York Times, his team is said to have provided incomplete information about the whereabouts of secret documents in Trump’s possession.
At least one of the Republican’s attorneys is said to have signed a statement in June that all of the classified material had been returned to the government, the newspaper wrote on Saturday, citing four unnamed people. Trump, on the other hand, continued to rail against the search.
Possible violation of US espionage law
The alleged letter from the Trump team to the Justice Department, which was also reported by CNN, contradicts the FBI’s list of documents seized on Monday. During a search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, the FBI seized several top-secret documents. In doing so, the ex-president may have broken several laws, including the US espionage law. According to the FBI list, the agents also found Top Secret/SCI documents, which can only be viewed in special government facilities.
The lawyer’s letter could explain why the search warrant also mentions obstruction of justice as a possible basis for possible seizures. It also raises new questions about the number of people who could be prosecuted as part of the ongoing investigation into the handling of classified information from Trump’s time at the White House, CNN reported. Trump and his team continued to oppose it. “As with every Democrat-managed witch hunt, this unprecedented and unnecessary crackdown is being carried out by a media willing to work with suggestive leaks, anonymous sources and no hard facts,” a US media quoted a Trump spokesman as saying.
Supporters see Trump as a ‘martyr’
Trump published articles by right-wing media on the Truth Social network, which he co-founded, calling him a “martyr” or denigrating investigators. The 76-year-old also wrote that he has the truth on his side – and if you have the truth on your side, eventually you will be victorious. He spoke of “false reports” and “fraud”. Trump himself made the search public and ranted about investigators and the judiciary. Attorney General Merrick Garland had stressed that the presumption of innocence applies. At the same time, he had underlined that a federal court had authorized the search “after the necessary determination of sufficient suspicion”.
Last year, National Archives officials discovered that Trump had taken a slew of documents and other government materials when he left the White House at the end of his term in January 2021. According to the law, this material should have been given to the National Archives. Trump finally handed over several documents to the agency earlier this year. After that, according to US media reports, there was a further exchange between investigators and Trump’s lawyers. Officials had suspected that Trump or his team were still holding back important documents, US media said.
Confidentiality cannot be easily revoked
Trump now argued that he had lifted the secrecy for the documents in question and could therefore simply take them with him. Incumbent presidents do have far-reaching powers to release information and break secrecy. But for the release of documents there is a formal procedure with several highly official steps – a simple verbal instruction is not enough. In addition, a president must break the secrecy during his term in office – he cannot do so afterwards. It is unclear whether the documents have gone through the legally required approval process.
In addition, it does not necessarily matter whether the documents were released. Even keeping documents without authorization can be a crime in the context of national defense if it jeopardizes the security of the country. Experts point out that certain documents, for example on nuclear weapons, cannot simply be released. All these questions will now have to be clarified by the courts.
Source: Stern
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