They have never been too believable but Donald Trump’s arguments are getting weaker to question the search that the FBI executed on August 8 at his residence in Mar-a-Lago. This Friday the affidavit with which judicial authorization was sought and obtained for that search, unheard of in the house of a former president of the United States. and the document of 38 pages, despite having almost half totally or partially hidden to Pprotect sources, grand jury inquiries, and investigation still underway from the Department of Justice, confirms that the Republican made a irregular and potentially dangerous handling for national security of classified documents Leaving the White House taking illicitly to Florida material it contained classified defense informationand potentially tried to obstruct the investigation.
The irregular handling of documents, as the affidavit shows, began to be verified in January, when the National Archives managed a year after Trump left the presidency to deliver 15 boxes with materials that had been brought. When the FBI studied the contents of those boxes in May, it found that among other things there were National Defense Information classified. Specifically, they found 184 documents classified, of which 25 They had the mark of “top secret”92 for “secret” and 67 for “confidential”.
Fears ran high given that those documents could contain iEspionage information obtained by clandestine agents and information that had been intercepted through the law authorizing espionage by foreign countries and agents (which has also been used to spy on Americans). Some of the documents also had “handwritten notes” by Trump himself. And he was especially concerned that “classified reports were loose, mixed with other documents and improperly identified“.
“probable cause”
With these precedents, Justice decided to start the process to obtain the green light for the registry. And, according to what is read in the record of the search warrant, prepared by an FBI special agent whose identity has also been withheld, they were motivated by two motives. They considered that there wasprobable cause” to think that despite the delivery of those 15 boxes at Mar-a-Lago there was still material with relevant information for national defense. And they believed that there was also “probable cause” to think that “evidence of obstruction“.
The publication of the judicial document, also extremely unusual, does not serve to determine at what point the Justice investigation is, its scope or if the attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice, Merrick Garland, will end up deciding to charge Trump with a crime, a decision that would guarantee a profound political earthquake. It does underline, however, the potential legal problems for the former president, who could have committed crimes violating the Espionage Law and two other statutes.
Although Trump has tried to protect himself by assuring that he had declassified the documents before taking them, an extreme that his lawyers defend in a letter also made public, the affidavit explicitly says that defense information does not need to be classified to violate the law that prohibits keeping it, transmitting it or losing it.
“Numerous civilian witnesses”
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Also this Friday, another legal document was made public that, despite also having many hidden parts, gives more relevant information about the investigation. It is about the memorandum with which Justice requested and obtained authorization to publish the affidavit only if it was allowed to hide parts that it considers sensitive, and the text explains, for example, that Justice and the FBI have spoken with “a significant number of civilian witnesses” to obtain the information about the documents in Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has reacted with a message on the Truth social network in which he has criticized the federal judge Bruce Reinhart, who authorized the registration and has also made the decisions on the publication of the Justice documents. She attributes “animosity and hatred” towards him. One of his spokespersons has also insisted without evidence that “It’s all political.