DDonald Trump moved a total of more than 300 classified files from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago property when he left Washington for Florida after leaving office. A first batch that Trump gave to the National Archives in January this year contained 150 files that were classified as classified. In June, Trump turned over more files to Justice Department officials. Finally, there are the files seized by FBI officials in this month’s Mar-a-Lago search. So far, the size of the files, which the “New York Times” reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources, was not known. The volume of material returned in January may have prompted an unprecedented search of the former president’s private quarters.
After months of negotiations with the National Archives, Trump handed over 15 boxes of files to the agency a year after leaving the White House. Some of the documents are said to have been torn up. White House staff had to tape them together. In some cases this did not appear to be possible. It is not yet clear what exactly the classified information contains. All that is known is that they include files from the CIA, the NSA and the FBI. In February, the National Archives asked the Justice Department to investigate Trump’s handling of official and classified files. In June, four investigators went to Mar-a-Lago to check if there was any other classified information on the premises. A search warrant was issued in August.
“Politics must not influence the administration of justice”
The FBI seized 26 boxes of files, including some classified information classified as top secret. Among other things, possible violations of the Espionage Act are being investigated. The Justice Department is said to be unsure whether Trump has any other stolen files. Trump claims he declassified the files: He issued an order at the time that all files delivered to his residence were declassified. State lawyers see this as a protective claim: the president has the right to release classified information, but there is a lengthy procedure for doing so.
Trump meanwhile requested an independent review of the seized files by a special representative. “Politics must have no influence on the administration of justice,” says the motion filed in federal court in West Palm Beach on Monday. He also asked investigators to return any items that did not fall within the scope of the search warrant. Among the documents are those that are protected by “attorney-client privilege and executive privilege”.
The Justice Department has until Thursday to provide Trump with a sealed and redacted version of the affidavit underlying the search warrant. Judge Bruce Reinhart, who signed the search warrant, wrote Monday, confirming his oral decision last week that he was inclined to make parts of the affidavit public. However, the government could still persuade him of the need to redact the text so much that publication was ultimately meaningless. It is very likely that the publication would affect the protection of the sources that gave the investigators information, he said.
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