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image source, US Department of Justice
This is the image released by the Department of Justice of some of the documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
The agents were dressed in civilian clothes, they did not carry weapons and they carried a court order, elements that should have led to it being a discreet operation. However, it was not.
The search carried out by the FBI on August 8 at Mar-a-Lago, the residence of former President Donald Trump in Florida, has opened not only a political battle – in which the former president presents himself as a victim of persecution – but it has also exposed a legal case of important dimensions.
During the search at Mar-a-Lago, federal agents They collected more than 20 boxes that included more than a hundred documents marked with different degrees of classification: from confidential to top secret.
Most of these documents were found in the storage room and others were in Trump’s office.
The Mar-a-Lago search came after months of negotiations between the United States National Archives, the agency to which by law all documents produced during each presidency belong, and Trump’s lawyers.
In January of this year, Trump delivered 15 boxes of documents and other items to the National Archives. Upon review, it was found that among them were 184 classified documents, 25 of which contained information marked “top secret.”
This set off the alarms and led to a request to the Department of Justice to investigate possible mishandling of confidential fileswhich after numerous efforts led to the order issued by a judge that authorized the FBI to carry out the recent search in Mar-a-Lago.
As explained by Asha Rangappa, a lawyer and former FBI agent, the discovery of more material of this type in Trump’s residence, after he had allegedly already handed over all the material in his possession, places the former president in a complex situation.
“He’s at a huge legal risk. This is a pretty straightforward case for the Justice Department relative to the other things they’ve investigated Trump for, because is essentially a matter of unauthorized possession of government documents and national defense information, and the proof is simply your presence at Mar-a-LagoRangappa explained to the BBC.
On Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers said in a court filing that Trump’s keeping sensitive files at his Florida residence “should never have been cause for alarm.”
In addition, they pointed out that the search at Mar-a-Lago had been “unprecedented, unnecessary, and lacking in legal support.”
image source, Getty Images
The FBI searched Trump’s mansion in Florida on August 8.
A curious element that has recently emerged in the midst of this investigation was a photograph contained in a document sent to the courts by the Department of Justice in which some of the materials found in Mar-a-Lago can be seen and which shed some clues about this case.
BBC Mundo tells you 3 things that this image shows.
1. Where was the photograph taken?
The image shows a black carpet with golden floral patterns on top of which are a series of documents, some of which have “SECRET/SCI)” written in red and others “TOP SECRET/SCI”.
In the lower right corner you can see a box in which several framed paintings of the same size appear, but you can only see the first one that shows a cover of TIME magazine and that corresponds to the cover of the 4th edition of that magazine. March 2019, showing the faces of the leaders of the Democratic Party who at that time aspired to compete with Trump in the 2020 elections.
The former president is known for his love of having TIME covers framed.
To the left of the image is a sort of cream-colored blind and what appears to be a blue curtain.
None of these elements, however, makes it possible to determine at a glance where the photo was taken.
However, his own Trump confirmed that it is Mar-a-Lago, when this August 31 he complained in a message published on his social network Truth Social about the way the documents were lying on the carpet.
“Terrible how the FBI, during the Mar-a-Lago raid, randomly tossed documents on the ground (perhaps pretending I did it!) and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see Did they think they wanted to keep it a secret? Lucky I declassified them!” he wrote.
2. How it was made register?
Despite the insinuations of the former president, this way of displaying and photographing evidence of the recovered material is a usual practice of the FBI that ensures that each object is taken into account and cataloged correctly.
image source, US Department of Justice
Pictured is the ruler used by the FBI to show the actual size of objects.
Thus, although at first glance it seems that the documents are randomly scattered, they are usually placed in such a way that they can be recognized by their labels.
An element that seems to confirm this is the fact that in the lower and central part of the photo there is a kind of L-shaped ruler that allows researchers to give a reference about the real size of the photographed objects.
Another indicator is a small paper sign placed next to the documents that says 2A. This serves to point out where those items are being included in the inventory that is made of the items collected during registration.
3. What kind of documents did they find?
Many of the documents you see in the image have “Secret” written in red letters, but there are a wide variety of possibilities here.
image source, US Department of Justice
As explained The Washington Postthe government has different colored covers that indicate the level of classification of a document ranging from blue (confidential) to orange (top secret).
In the photograph you can see several documents with labels that say “SECRET/SCI” and “TOP SECRET/SCI”
SCI is a code that indicates that the distribution of that material is controlled and that it is restricted to a subgroup within the people who have authorization to see information of that level (secret, top secret, etc).
Some of the documents photographed include an inscription that reads “UP TO HCS-P/SI/TK.” This means that it includes material that falls into these different categories.
HCS-P is a code indicating that the information was obtained through human intelligence sources. The Classification Manual of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence states that it is used to protect the most sensitive human intelligence operations, information obtained from clandestine sources and/or through especially sensitive human intelligence sources or methods, and certain capabilities or Technologies linked to or used in support of human intelligence operations.
SI is a code that means Special Intelligence and specifically refers to intelligence information obtained through the monitoring of foreign communications signals.
TK, on the other hand, is a code that is used to designate the information that is obtained through spy satellites.
At least one of the documents seen in the photograph has the code “SECRET/ORCON-USGOV-NOFORN” inscribed on it. This indicates that whoever produced this material controls its distribution (ORCON) and that it cannot be shared with allied governments (NOFORN).
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