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According to a shocking new court declaration from the Department of Justice, top secret papers discovered at Donald Trump’s Florida residence were “likely buried” to thwart an FBI investigation into the former US president’s possible misuse of classified information.
The paper, which was made public late on Tuesday, gives the most thorough description to date of the almost one-and-a-half-year-long attempt to recover hundreds of secret documents that were wrongfully brought to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in January 2021.
Furthermore, the allegation of obstruction increases the legal pressure on the Republican ex-president, who vehemently denies any wrongdoing and has referred to the unusual FBI raid on his opulent home earlier this month as a “witch hunt.”
In response, Trump’s legal team filed a document on Wednesday that called the raid “unprecedented, unnecessary, and legally unsupported,” characterised the government’s pursuit of the documents as “unjustified,” claimed that the former president’s possession of sensitive information “should have never been cause for alarm,” and stated that the government’s pursuit of the documents “should have never been justified.”
The examination of “highly sensitive” information that Trump finally turned over to authorities in January of this year, following months of back and forth with the National Archives and Records Administration, was what led to the August 8 raid (NARA).
Following the discovery of the 184 documents tagged as confidential, secret, or top secret in the 15 boxes, which included material about national defence, the Justice Department launched an investigation into the situation, according to a government affidavit.
After being prodded by the FBI, Trump’s attorney eventually turned over an additional 38 top-secret documents and gave “sworn certification” that these were the final copies of the material.
The FBI went on to find “several sources of information” that showed classified documents were still at Mar-a-Lago, according to the new filing. But it didn’t end there.
During the course of their court-ordered search, agents discovered information that was so sensitive that “even the FBI counterintelligence personnel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents,” according to the report.
Surprisingly, the file featured a picture of colored-coded papers spread out on a carpet with the words “SECRET” and “TOP SECRET” written next to them.
According to the petition, prosecutors are currently investigating whether Trump or anybody in his inner circle committed a crime by obstructing the retrieval of secret materials by federal officials.
In a post on his Truth Social network, Trump retaliated over the publication of the image.
Agents reportedly discovered more than 100 documents with classified marks during the operation, bringing the total number of secret documents confiscated from the former president to more than 300, according to the Tuesday filing.
Trump, who is considering running for president again in 2024, has claimed that Joe Biden, the Democratic president, and the Justice Department are engaged in a personal vendetta against him. He further claimed that the judge “should never have authorised the break-in of my home.”
The former president has filed a lawsuit to request the appointment of a neutral third party, or “special master,” to search the confiscated documents for information covered by personal privilege.
They stated that the appointment of a special master would be the best way to handle the duties of guaranteeing access by (Trump’s) counsel to the seized materials, sharing an actual (detailed) inventory, making independent assessments of attorney-client privilege, and making executive privilege determinations.
The Mar-a-Lago search warrant, which Attorney General Merrick Garland personally approved, was based on suspicions of violations of the US Espionage Act involving the illegal retention of sensitive defence documents, on suspicion of obstruction, and on suspicion of the illegal destruction of government records.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, a Democrat, criticised the acts described in the brief as being “very irresponsible” and demonstrating “deliberate” lying.
Trump is under legal investigation for his attempts to have the results of the 2020 election nullified as well as for his followers’ attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, which is in addition to New York inquiries into his business activities.
After the Capitol riot, Trump was charged with encouraging an uprising and was impeached by the House of Representatives for an unprecedented second time; however, the Senate found him not guilty.
