Several top secret documents, information on the French President and 20 boxes of contents. It is among the discoveries the FBI made at Donald Trump’s home in Florida on Monday this week.
Updated just now
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The article is being updated!
A federal judge decided at 9.45pm on Friday evening Norwegian time that the documents relating to the search can be made public.
On August 9, the FBI searched Donald Trump’s estate in Florida, Mar-A-Lago, by order of US Attorney General Merrick Garland. Never before has this happened to a former president of the country.
According to The Washington Post, the background for the search must have been, among other things, one suspicion that Donald Trump kept classified documents about nuclear weapons in his home.
Wall Street Journal announced Friday that the FBI found eleven classified documents during the search. In addition, some of the documents must have been classified as “top secret”.
Later on Friday evening, several other media confirmed this, and just before 10pm Norwegian time, the confirmation came.
Among other things, the documents establish that suspicion of a breach of espionage legislation is part of the legal basis for the search.
Browse through the search documents here:
1 / 7
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The Espionage Act criminalizes spying for or otherwise assisting an enemy of the United States, and sharing classified government information without permission.
When Trump was president, he increased the penalties for violating the Espionage Act or the unauthorized removal or retention of classified information. The penalty was increased to up to five years in prison.
This they have found
- The FBI is said to have collected 20 boxes of classified information as confidential and secret documents.
- Binders with photos and handwritten notes are said to have been found, in addition to documents that were marked as top secret. Top Secret is the highest security classification in the United States.
- In addition, the news agency Reuters reports that the documents should have contained information regarding the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
- There must also be a documented breach of the Criminal Code which deals with the collection or transfer of defense information.
- Reuters also reports that the investigations show violations of the Espionage Act.
In addition, Reuters reports that Donald Trump’s pardon of Roger Stone should have been found in the search.
Stone is a former Trump adviser and became Among other things, he was convicted of lying under oath.
– Surprising, says the US expert
Since last year, Trump has been in conflict with the Norwegian National Archives (NARA) over the public documents he allegedly took home.
After a lot of back and forth, the Archives authorities got it 15 boxes of documents handed down from Trump earlier this year. These were apparently all the documents he sat on.
Now the federal police have retrieved even more boxes.
– If you now add it up, Trump has brought with him 35 boxes of documents from the White House, says US expert and legal researcher Sofie Høgestøl to VG.
Some of the documents are also graded.
– Not only has he brought a lot of documents with him, he is also not truthful when dealing with the authorities, says Høgestøl.
– It is surprising.
–Claims he has declassified secret documents
Donald Trump and his supporters believe that he has declassified the documents he had at his home in Mar-a-Lago, according to several American media.
It is unclear whether he has actually done so.
– This means that the case has taken a new turn, says the US expert.
She explains that the case has gone from Trump denying having had documents at his home, to him now acknowledging it.
– Now Trump is trying to say that he cannot be punished for possessing classified documents, since they were not classified anyway.
In a possible legal case, Høgestøl believes this will be important:
– The emphasis is then on what you have consciously done. Here it can look like he has deliberately withheld many documents, says Høgestøl.
Would be a scandal for other presidents
Høgestøl believes Trump has set a new standard in American politics.
– Normally, a president must exercise discretion and good manners, says Høgestøl.
She believes that the mere suggestion of an offense would be a scandal for others in the same situation.
– He is the first president to be investigated by the federal police in this way.
Høgestøl reminds that the former president is only under investigation.
– There is no indication that Trump has been charged.
–The FBI agents are said to have also been looking for documents related to nuclear weapons, sources claimed Washington Post night to Friday.
Trump claims on his own website, Truth Social, that the allegations are nonsense.
– The thing about nuclear weapons is just nonsense, just like Russia, Russia, Russia. Russia was a hoax, the impeachment was a hoax and the Mueller investigation is a hoax.
The media, which so far write that they have been given access to the documents, do not mention that there are to be nuclear weapons-related documents in the material.
– The papers are produced by radical left-wing democrats
Both Trump and the Justice Department requested the release of the search documents.
– I will not object to the release of the documents related to the un-American, unjustified and unnecessary raid and burglary of my home, Donald Trump wrote on his website Truth Social.
On the website, Trump called for the immediate release of the documents.
This despite the fact that Trump himself claimed the documents were produced by his opponents:
– The documents were produced by radical left-wing democrats and possible future political rivals, who have a strong interest in attacking me, writes the former president.
–The Democratic majority leader in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, says a publication is important to determine the seriousness of these documents that Trump is supposed to have kept.
– I believe it is important to know how serious the contents of the documents are. Hopefully we will find out more, but we also don’t want to know too much because it could threaten our safety, she said according to CNN.
–The Republican leader in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, also wants the Department of Justice to publish more than just the search warrant.
– Why don’t they just make the documents public? You want to trust public bodies, and secrecy undermines this trust, said McCarthy.
–Corrected
In an earlier version of this case, it was stated that the news agency Reuters reported that Trump had filed a legal document stating that he would not object to the publication of documents related to the search.
Reuters later corrected this information, which is linked to statements Trump himself has made on his social media platform Truth Social, where he already announced on Thursday that he would not oppose this.
The article was changed at 20:38 on Friday 12 August 2022.
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