Court documents indicate that he is being investigated for violating the Espionage law and for obstruction
The Justice Department had powerful reasons to carry out the search that the FBI carried out on Monday with judicial authorization in the Donald Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago. The agents took in that operation 11 series of classified documents that the former president should have turned over to the National Archives or other federal authorities upon leaving the White House, including four that were classified as top secret& rdquor ;, three of “secrets” and three others fromconfidential”.
The explosive information is contained in the three-page list with the inventory of the materials seized in that operation, a list that includes other materials also obtained in the registry, such as the sorry roger stone and oneFile on French President Emmanuel Macron. The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced on Thursday that Justice had filed a motion to make that and other documents public, including the order of a federal judge that authorized it, and the secrecy has been lifted this Friday afternoon, although various US media had previously had access to the documents.
Violation of the law of espionage and obstruction
It is not the only revelation that confirms the serious legal and political problems facing the former Republican president. One of the attachments to the search warrant lists three criminal statutes that were cited in support of the search, and that information confirms why it is under investigation Trump.
One of those statutes deals with the espionage law, which covers the unlawful retention of defense related information what could harm the United States or help a foreign adversary. The former president is also being investigated in relation to another statute that addresses the destruction or concealment of documents to obstruct government investigations or administrative procedures, as well as by a third party that covers illegally taking official documents.
Although the revelations do not confirm the extreme that ‘The Washington Post’ had published on Thursday, which reported that among the documents that Trump illegally took to his residence in his private Palm Beach club there was potentially material “related to weapons nuclear& rdquor ;, represent the hardest blow for the former president and intensify the political earthquake in the US.
Although the Justice Department treads carefully in a terrain that is politically and socially a minefield, it could decide to prosecute Trump. And if he did and the former president was found guilty of violations of those statutes, could be sentenced with fines or even jail time.
message battle
Trump has not objected to will lift the secret about these documents and even on Thursday he urged that they be made public, although his lawyers had copies in their possession since Monday and he could have done it himself.
In communications and messages on his social network, he has also called it a “hoax & rdquor; Post information about his potential possession of nuclear weapons documents and has tried to downplay the revelations assuring, without being able to prove it, that “all (the seized material) was declassified & rdquor ;.
The Republican has also spent the last few hours feeding baseless accusations that the FBI agents were able to plant false evidence and insisting on their complaints without evidence that the entire operation, which he says “unprecedented and unnecessary & rdquor ;, is part of a” witch hunt & rdquor; behind the one that says that there is “a political motivation & rdquor ;.
“My numbers in the polls are stronger than ever, the fundraising of the Republican Party is breaking all records and the legislative elections are approaching & rdquor ;, Trump said in one of his statements in the last hours, which has not formally announced that he will run as a presidential candidate in 2024 but it keeps showing strength and control over the Republican Party, their schedule, candidates for the November elections and many of its voters.
first cracks
Despite Trump’s rhetorical machine gun, who also continues to speak of “use as political weapon of the forces of order without precedent & rdquor ;, his message may be losing oxygen. Numerous politicians from his party maintained this Friday the closing of ranks around their leader that they have been staging since Monday, a unity in which the conservative media and their main figures also participate.
There are also beginning to be, however, Republican congressmenespecially those who serve on committees linked to national security, who have spent the last two days showing more restraint and caution in their messages, saying they wanted to wait to see how the investigation evolves. Perhaps they sensed the seriousness of what beats after the registration at Mar-a-Lago, confirmed this Friday.
It remains to be seen now the next steps that Justice takes. The White HouseFor now, he is making an effort to keep his distance from Garland’s actions and decisions, of which he assures that the president, Joe Biden, has not had prior information. and it also remains see how the most radical base reacts and true to Trump, who is listening calls to “war & rdquor ;, a violent response that began to take shape on Thursday when an armed man, who was later shot by the authorities and who is being investigated if he is linked to groups of extreme rightattempted to break into an FBI office in Cincinnati.
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