Until now it is unknown why the former president had top secret documents and who had access to their content
US intelligence will assess whether the country’s security may have been jeopardized by the top-secret documents that former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) stored without authorization at his Mar-a-Lago residence, the Politico newspaper and the CNN network reported this Saturday.
According to these media, the director of US intelligence, Avril Haines, has sent a letter to a group of legislators to inform them that her office will carry out “an evaluation” of the risks to the security of the United States that could have resulted from the disclosure of the documents that Trump had. Until now it is unknown why the former president had these documents in Mar-a-Lago (Florida) and who had access to its content.
This is the first time that US intelligence admits the possibility that the security of the country has been endangered by the files that Trump had in his Florida mansion and that were recovered by the FBI during a search on August 8. .
Information made public by the Department of Justice so far shows that Trump and his entourage could be being investigated for three crimes: obstruction of justice, destruction of documents and violation of the espionage law, which carry prison sentences.
According to Politico and CNN, Haines sent the letter this Friday and it was addressed to the chair of the House Government Oversight Committee, Carolyn Maloney, and to the chair of the House intelligence committee, Adam Schiff. In a statement, Maloney and Schiff applauded US intelligence’s decision to open an investigation to assess possible damage to the country’s security and called for the investigation to proceed quickly.
Related news
The announcement about the investigation coincides with the publication this Friday by order of a judge of the report that served to justify the FBI’s search of Trump’s mansion in Mar-a-Lago. The version of the statement that was released had practically half of the content crossed out, so the juiciest details of the FBI investigation remain unknown. However, it does reveal that the FBI feared that Trump’s withholding of documents could jeopardize the identity of informants and other sources working with the US government.
Trump reacted to the publication of that statement with ridicule, in an attempt to downplay it, reports Efe.