The search warrant states that the FBI is investigating, among other things, whether the ‘espionage act’ has been violated by Trump. It is being examined whether Trump and his staff have withheld or destroyed documents without permission, and whether this has harmed the national interest. It is also being investigated whether the investigation into this has been hindered by Trump or his staff. It is not known whether the judiciary believes that laws have been broken.
The FBI agents took a total of about 20 boxes from Trump’s home address. Ultimately, four sets of ‘top secret’ documents were included, three sets of ‘secret’ documents and three sets of documents classified under ‘confidential’. It remains unclear what subjects these documents are about. US media reported Thursday that the FBI was specifically looking for information about nuclear weapons and foreign operations.
grace
The boxes also contained photographs, handwritten notes and the document with which Trump pardoned his friend and adviser Roger Stone. Information about the president of France has also been seized. It is unclear what kind of information that is. Trump and President Macron seemed to get along well at first, but the relationship ended tense.
The search warrant states that the FBI agents focused their search on “The Office of 45” (Trump is the 45th president) and other storage areas used by Trump and his staff “that may contain boxes or documents, including any buildings on the estate.” The guest quarters of the members of Mar-a-Lago were not searched.
‘They should have asked’
Trump says in a response that the documents found were no longer secret. His lawyers previously argued that as president, he could release documents verbally. The FBI also did not have to raid, he writes. “They only had to ask.” The papers were also safely stored, according to Trump.
He then accuses his predecessor Barack Obama of breaking the rules. “The biggest problem now is, what do they do with the 33 million pages of documents, many of them confidential, that President Obama took to Chicago?” The US National Archives responded to Trump’s allegations earlier Friday and rejected them. According to the organization, Obama acted according to the law with his presidential documents.
The search warrant was released at the request of Attorney General Merrick Garland after the raid sparked criticism from Republicans. Trump and his congressional allies accused the Justice Department of seeking to eliminate Trump from the 2024 presidential election at the behest of President Biden.
False Evidence
According to Trump and a significant group of Republican congressmen, the FBI is highly politicized, corrupt, and untrustworthy. Trump has repeatedly stated that the FBI may have planted false evidence in the search, an accusation that has been repeated by several congressmen and opinion makers. Trump and his allies failed to provide evidence for their allegations.
Secretary Garland defended his officials and called the criticism unfounded. He emphasized that procedures had been followed carefully and that a judge had approved the action. It was Garland himself who authorized the raid, he said. He decided to do so when it turned out that ‘less drastic’ measures did not work. Earlier in the day, US media reported that Trump also received a subpoena for missing classified documents this spring. Fifteen boxes had already been retrieved before that. Then the search was started.