Former US President Donald Trump took boxes of classified documents to his Florida mansion. Some of the documents were classified as top secret. It has been estimated that there were papers, the careless storage of which violates US espionage laws.
19:50•Updated 21:47
The grounds of the former President of the United States Donald Trump’s the manor house search warrant has been announced. The stripped-down model of the document does not reveal detailed information about the reasons for the home search.
According to the reasons, it is assumed that there are even more classified documents in the manor.
As expected, the Ministry of Justice has removed secret and sensitive details and information about witnesses from the reasons for the home search warrant. The published document also did not want to reveal the strategy of the investigation or its directions and scope.
So far, it has been estimated that the seized documents are suspected to contain sensitive defense documents, the illegal retention of which violates US espionage laws.
The Espionage Act prohibits the unauthorized retention of national security information that could harm the United States or help foreign adversaries.
During the house search of Trump’s mansion at the beginning of August, a large number of classified documents were seized.
Trump had previously handed over half of the 300 secret government documents he had taken to the Mar-a-Lago estate.
The US federal police, the FBI, obtained a search warrant from the federal court because the former president was suspected with probable cause of committing a crime by taking classified documents to his mansion.
Justice Department prosecutors have objected to the release of the search warrant because they say it interferes with an ongoing criminal investigation. According to the prosecutors, the matter should remain confidential during the investigation.
Trump denies doing anything wrong
US presidents should transfer documents and emails to the National Archives after they leave office.
Trump denies doing anything wrong, as he says he de-encrypted classified documents before moving them to his Florida mansion. According to him, the FBI search was done with political motives.
Trump commented on his own social media service, Truth Social, that the disclosure of the grounds for the home search was just a deception by the Department of Justice and the FBI.
– I didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, we have been attacked, Trump says.
President of the United States Joe Biden does not want to comment on whether taking the documents to Trump’s private mansion has harmed state security.
– Let the Ministry of Justice decide on that, says President Biden.
Story edited at 21:11 – added Trump’s recent comments.