2023-06-10 02:02:17
In the USA, the laws are the same for everyone
said the special prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Jack Smith, revealing this document during a brief televised address.
Those who protecting information related to national defense is essential
et violating them endangers our country
he asserted, asking for a quick trial
for the ex-president.
Donald Trump announced Thursday that he had been indicted by federal justice for his management of the White House archives, a first for a former president, and that he was summoned to court in Miami on Tuesday.
I am innocent
he had claimed, presenting himself as the victim of a plot orchestrated by his Democratic opponents to block his way to the White House, which he hopes to regain in 2024.
The indictment, released on Friday, includes 37 counts, including unlawful retention of national security information
, obstruction of justice
et false testimony
.
This is no longer America!
commented Donald Trump on his network Truth Socialensuring that we do not have never had anything to hide
.
In the United States, a law requires presidents to send all their emails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives. Another, on espionage, prohibits keeping state secrets in unauthorized and unsecured places.
11,000 documents found at Mar-a-Lago
In January 2021, when he left the White House to settle in his luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Donald Trump had however taken away dozens of boxes full of files.
According to the indictment, they remained piled up at the scene of a ballroom
before being transported to a riddance
accessible from the swimming pool, where certain documents marked with the mention top secret
were seen sprawled on the ground.
A photo reproduced in this document shows stacks of boxes behind a toilet in a large bathroom.
In January 2022, after several reminders, he agreed to return 15 boxes containing nearly 200 classified documents.
The federal police, however, estimated that he had not returned everything and still kept a lot in his club in Palm Beach. In May, a summons to produce the missing documents was sent to Donald Trump.
His lawyers had returned 38 additional documents. Always convinced that it was lacking, agents of the FBI carried out a spectacular search at Mar-a-Lago on August 8 and seized around 30 other boxes, containing 11,000 documents.
According to the indictment, these included information on the defense capabilities of the United States and foreign countries
, on nuclear programs
Americans and on potential vulnerabilities in the event of an attack on the United States and its allies
.
In addition to Donald Trump, the indictment concerns his former personal assistant, Walt Nauta, accused of having moved, at the request of his boss, boxes to hide them.
Donald Trump is accused of having endangered the security of the United States by keeping, everywhere in Mar-a-Lago, military secrets of the American army and its allies, including Canada. He faces 37 counts. Report by Jean-Sébastien Cloutier.
Republicans stand with Trump
Another special prosecutor is investigating in parallel classified documents found earlier this year in a former office and at the home of Democratic President Joe Biden by his lawyers.
These embarrassing finds, along with others from ex-Vice President Mike Pence, allowed Donald Trump to downplay the seriousness of his conduct, even though Joe Biden has always cooperated with justice, voluntarily returning the documents, in much smaller numbers.
Anxious not to feed the accusations of political persecution
the Democratic president, who will also seek a second term in 2024, assured Friday not having spoken
of the file with his Minister of Justice, Merrick Garland, and to have no comment
.
For their part, the Republicans are closing ranks around Donald Trump, including his rivals for the party’s presidential nomination, which he is well ahead of.
The same solidarity was manifested in April, when the justice of the State of New York had also indicted him, for accounting fraud this time, as part of a payment in 2016 to an actress of X films so that she conceals an alleged affair.
And prosecutor Jack Smith, who has during his career notably prosecuted perpetrators of war crimes in Kosovo, is still investigating Donald Trump’s role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
1686366597
#Trump #accused #endangering #United #States #keeping #topsecret #documents