US federal police, the FBI, seized “top secret” documents during their search of former President Donald Trump’s home in a possible violation of the Espionage Act, according to court documents released Friday.
Investigators suspect the Republican, with the illegal possession of classified documents, of having violated a US espionage law.
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. In this list is mentioned a set of documents concerning the “president of France”, without further details.
The operation, conducted in Donald Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago in Florida, had provoked the fury of his supporters evoking a “political persecution”, as well as many Republican tenors.
“Not Lightly”
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 the copy public. of the mandate he had received.
The ex-president assured in a press release on Friday that the documents recovered by the police had all been declassified.
Thursday, during his brief televised address, Merrick Garland assured to have “personally approved” this search. “The ministry does not take this kind of decision lightly,” said the Minister of Justice, adding that the case was of “important public interest”, three months before the mid-term legislative elections.
A first
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.
Monday’s search was the first ever to target a former US president.
Outraged, 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 a.m., by a VERY large number of agents” .
He complained in particular that FBI agents “searched the closets of First Lady” Melania Trump. On Wednesday, he even suggested that the federal police may have “placed” false evidence once morest him during this operation.
Bloc
Republican sympathizers, though known for their support for law enforcement, castigated the intervention of the FBI, so much so that an association of agents denounced calls “unacceptable (…) to violence once morest the police”. The Minister of Justice also reported “unfounded attacks” once morest his ministry and federal police officers.
Thursday, a gunman who had tried to enter FBI offices in Ohio (north of the United States) was killed by the police following a long confrontation.
After the search, the Republican tenors had united with their former president, who retains a strong hold on the conservative party and plans to be a presidential candidate once more in 2024.
The ex-real estate magnate, at the heart of the judicial news in the United States, was also subjected on Wednesday to a hearing under oath before the Attorney General of New York, who is investigating in civil on suspicion of fraud. fiscal financial affairs within the Trump Organization family group. He then repeatedly invoked his right not to answer questions under the 5th Amendment of the Constitution.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp
