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WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 (AP) — Fourteen of 15 boxes recovered from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate earlier this year contained classified documents, according to an affidavit released by the FBI. Many are top-secret documents mixed in with various newspapers, magazines and personal correspondence. Friday.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago does not have any space authorized to store classified materials, according to court documents that lay out the reasons for the FBI’s search of the property this month, including “there may be reason to believe that evidence of obstruction will be established.”
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The 32-page affidavit — heavily edited to protect the safety of witnesses and law enforcement officers and the “integrity of the ongoing investigation” — provides information so far stored in Mar-a-Lago long after Trump. The most detailed description of the estate’s government records left the White House. It also revealed the seriousness of the government’s concerns about the illegal existence of the documents.
The document makes it clear that the arbitrary retention of top-secret government records, and the failure to return them despite months of efforts by U.S. officials to return them, exposes Trump to new legal dangers as he prepares for another potential presidential campaign. Lay the groundwork as in 2024.
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“The government is conducting a criminal investigation into the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces and the unlawful hiding or removal of government records,” an FBI agent on the first page of an affidavit seeking permission from a judge Written to obtain a warrant to search the property.
Federal agents are investigating possible violations of three federal laws, including one that governs the collection, transmission or loss of defense information under the Espionage Act, documents previously made public show. Other regulations deal with the concealment, destruction or deletion of records, and the destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations.
Despite clear evidence to the contrary, Trump has long maintained that he cooperates fully with administration officials. He has united Republicans behind him by portraying the search as a politically motivated witch hunt aimed at undermining his reelection prospects. He repeated the phrase on his social media site Friday, saying he and his representatives have a close working relationship with the FBI and “give them a lot.”
The affidavit does not provide new details about the 11 sets of classified records recovered during the Mar-a-Lago search on Aug. 8, but instead concerns another batch of 15 boxes retrieved from homes by the National Archives and Records Administration in January .
The National Archives then sent the matter to the Justice Department, noting in its referral that the review revealed a “substantial” amount of classified material, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit argued that the Mar-a-Lago search was warranted due to the discovery of highly sensitive material in boxes recovered by the National Archives. Of the 184 documents marked classified, 25 were at the top secret level, the affidavit said. Some are specially marked to indicate that they contain information from highly sensitive human sources or collections of electronic “signals” authorized by the Special Intelligence Court.
Citing a letter from the archives, the affidavit said some of the classified records were mixed with other documents, including newspapers, magazines and miscellaneous printouts.
Douglas London, a former senior CIA official and author of “The Recruiter,” said it showed Trump’s lack of respect for control. “One of the rules of secrecy is that you don’t mix classified and unclassified so that there are no mistakes or accidents,” he said.
The affidavit shows how agents were authorized to search a large area of Mar-a-Lago, including the official “Office 45” after Trump’s presidency, storage rooms and all other areas where boxes or documents could be stored. They did not propose to search areas of the property used or rented by Mar-a-Lago members, such as private suites.
The document states that at least since the end of Trump’s term, Mar-a-Lago has not had any space authorized to store classified information.
The FBI filed an affidavit, or sworn statement, with the judge in order to obtain a warrant to search Trump’s property. The affidavit usually contains important information about the investigation, with agents stating their reasons for why they are searching a particular property and why they believe they may find evidence of a potential crime there.
Affidavits are usually kept sealed while pending investigations. But in acknowledging special public interest in the investigation, U.S. District Judge Bruce Reinhart on Thursday ordered the department to release a redacted affidavit by Friday.
In a separate document unsealed Friday, Justice Department officials explained that some information was necessary to redact “to protect the safety and privacy of large numbers of civilian witnesses and law enforcement officers, as well as to protect the integrity of law enforcement officers. Ongoing investigations.” .
The second half of the affidavit is almost entirely redacted, so it is impossible to discern the scope of the investigation or where it might go. It did not name anyone who could be the subject of the investigation, nor did it answer core questions, such as why top-secret documents were brought to Mar-a-Lago at the end of the presidency, even though the government considers them as presidential records belonging to the National Archives and requiring special storage .
It also did not include details of interactions between Trump representatives and the Justice Department in the months leading up to the search, including a subpoena in May and a June visit to the property by the Justice Department’s top counterintelligence official. This iteration culminated in a search on August 8, when the agent retrieved 11 sets of classified records.
Still, the documents unsealed Friday did provide insight into the arguments Trump’s legal team is expected to make as the case progresses. These included a letter from Trump’s lawyer, M Evan Corcoran, in which he claimed the president had “absolute authority” to declassify documents and that “the president’s conduct involving classified documents is not criminally sanctioned.”
Mark Zeid, a longtime national security lawyer who has criticized Trump’s handling of classified information, said the letter’s claim that Trump could declassify “anything” was “blatantly false.”
“There are some legal and technical defenses as to whether certain provisions of the Espionage Act apply to the president,” Zeid said. “But some of those provisions make no distinction and will give rise to a defense.” (The Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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