Mar-a-Lago FBI classified documents search and seizure more
details – now nearly every day since the August search warrant was served with
this story update from The Hill with their headline (I boxed off key points that need emphasis):
“Trump held more than 300
classified documents after leaving White House”
Trump reportedly held on to more than 300 classified
documents after leaving office, half of which were recovered in January by the
National Archives, which alerted the DOJ in what eventually led to the FBI
search of his Mar-a-Lago property on August 8, 2022.
The NY TIMES cited multiple sources who have been briefed on the matter that the sheer volume
of classified-marked material recovered by the government is what triggered a
federal criminal investigation into the former president.
The National Archives in
January recovered 150 classified documents, while another set, which was also
at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, was given to the DOJ in June by Trump aides.
Additional classified
documents were then recovered in the FBI search earlier this month, now totaling
more than 300 such documents.
The 15 boxes turned over to the National Archives earlier
this year included CIA, FBI, and NSA documents involving national
security, according to a person briefed (NY Times report).
Three days after the FBI
searched Mar-a-Lago, The
Washington Post then reported that some of the documents recovered in
that search were related to nuclear weapons.
The NY Times also reported that authorities are seeking
surveillance video of Mar-a-Lago leading up to the August 8 search in an effort
to find out how some of the documents were being handled there.
An unsealed warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago made public days
after the search revealed that federal authorities are investigating Trump for
possible violations of the Espionage Act, among other statutes.
A property receipt of
items seized by the FBI shows authorities recovered a trove of materials,
including 11 sets of classified documents, some of which were marked Top Secret/SCI (the
highest level requiring a secure location for such documents).
Worse
is that Trump keeps insisting that he declassified the documents taken into custody
by the FBI, but even if that’s possible he did so without following the proper
protocols for such a step to declassify any of the documents.
Trump and the National
Archives have been at odds since he left office in 2021 after the agency
determined he was in possession of White House documents that should have been
turned over to the government when he ended his term on January 20, 2021.
Plus this just in: But the argument
from Trump that the documents are subject to executive privilege protections
suggests those documents are official records – which he is not authorized to
keep and should have turned over to the National Archives at the end of the
administration.
Trump’s motion for a
Special Master appears to show that he concedes that he violated one of the
criminal statutes listed on the warrant used by the FBI to
search his Mar-a-Lago resort resident –IAW: 18 USC
2071 – concerning the unlawful removal of government records.
Related:
Trump defiance of the DOJ
on classified documents comes into sharper focus (The Hill article)
May 2022: My post same subject in the early
stages
My 2 Cents: Short and sweet – Trump needs to be charged and
prosecuted. This is a very serious matter and he must not be allowed to pull a
Houdini and escape justice. Letting him
skate justice would be worse than prosecuting him since no one is above the law.
That principle is the bedrock
premise in American law and this type of crime threatens our national security –
perhaps beyond repair since right now we simply do not know the damage Trump has
inflicted, but I suspect it is massive – but, we shall see.
Stay tuned as I’m sure you
will.
Thanks for stopping by.
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