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U.S. Justice Dept releases new details on Trump documents probe

The U.S. Department of Justice, on Friday, released new details about its investigation into government papers that former President Donald Trump removed from the White House, including 184 classified documents.

Some of the documents recovered during the August 8 search at Trump’s estate in Florida were labeled as “top secret” and contained sensitive information about government informants and intelligence-gathering.

The 17th page of the redacted version of an affidavit that the U.S. Justice Department submitted to a federal judge to support the execution of a search warrant by the FBI at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate shows a list of the classification markings found on documents returned in 15 boxes to the National Archives by Trump including “184 unique documents bearing classification markings, including 67 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL, 92 documents marked as SECRET, and 25 documents marked as TOP SECRET” after the affidavit was released by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. August 26, 2022.

According to Reuters, much of the 32-page affidavit remains under seal.

In a separate filing made public Friday, the Justice Department said that information must remain confidential to protect a “significant number of civilian witnesses,” as well as law enforcement and the integrity of the investigation itself. Much of that court filing was also redacted.

An August 8 search by the FBI at the Florida resort marked a significant escalation in one of the many federal and state investigations Trump is facing from his time in office and in private business.

The Republican former President, who described the search as politically motivated, has suggested he might run for the White House again.

The FBI action was part of a federal probe into whether Trump illegally removed documents when he left office in January 2021 after losing the presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, and whether he tried to obstruct the government’s investigation.

According to the document released on Friday, an unidentified FBI agent said the U.S. National Archives had discovered scores of “documents bearing classification markings” containing “national defense information” when it recovered 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago in January.

READ ALSO: FBI ‘raids’ ex-U.S. President Donald Trump’s residence

The agent, who drafted the affidavit, said after the FBI had reviewed the initial batch of records, it believed there was probable cause to believe more documents were still inside Mar-a-Lago.

“There is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at the premises,” the agent added.

The records unsealed on Friday also showed how Trump’s attorneys tried to convince the Justice Department not to pursue a criminal investigation, arguing Trump had the authority to declassify documents.

“Any attempt to impose criminal liability on a President or former President that involves his actions with respect to documents marked classified would implicate grave constitutional separation-of-powers issues.

“Beyond that, the primary criminal statute that governs the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material does not apply to the President,” Trump’s attorney Evan Corcoran wrote in a May 25 letter to the Justice Department’s head of counterintelligence.

The FBI agent said a preliminary review of the records the Archives received in the 15 boxes, which was conducted between May 16-18, found 184 “unique documents” labeled as classified. Of those, 67 were marked “confidential”, while 92 were marked as “secret” and 25 marked as “top secret.”

Other defense-related records, meanwhile, contained references to things such as confidential human sources that help the United States with its intelligence-gathering.

The Star

Segun Ojo

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