2023-05-26 16:10:56
Image: Andrew Harnik/AP/dpa
The secret documents found on Donald Trump are said to have been kept open by the ex-president, US media reports. He also had boxes with documents removed – at a suspicious time.
No time? blue News summarizes
- The investigation into the allegation against Donald Trump of improper theft and safekeeping of secret documents is progressing.
- In addition, the ex-president is being investigated for obstruction of justice. Above all, there should be new incriminating findings.
- According to a report by the Washington Post, Trump is said to have placed the documents in his office and shown them to other people.
- He also had boxes with unknown documents removed just one day before the first documents were handed over to the US authorities. These could have been other secret documents.
- In addition, Trump had his staff rehearse the removal of documents – even before he had received a subpoena due to the missing documents.
In the investigation into Trump over the secret government documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the evidence against the former US President seems to be condensing.
In June 2022, Trump’s lawyers handed over some secret documents to the authorities. Because there were doubts that all the documents were actually there, the FBI examined Trump’s property in August and found numerous other documents, some with the highest level of confidentiality.
The Republican must therefore answer charges of improper theft and safekeeping of classified documents, unlawful hiding of government documents, and obstruction of justice.
Secret documents placed visible in the office
Die «Washington Post» reported now about several developments in the investigation that are likely to put additional strain on Trump. The newspaper relies on anonymous sources from the environment of the investigation.
The public prosecutor’s office is said to have collected evidence that Trump temporarily kept some of the secret documents found on him in a place in his office where they were clearly visible to visitors. He is even said to have shown some of the documents.
Furthermore, just a day before the FBI and prosecutors came to Mar-a-Lago in June to collect the first documents, Trump allegedly gave employees a suspicious order to move boxes containing several documents bring.
Trump allegedly had the documents removed
According to the lawyer for one of the two employees Trump hired to do the job, his client didn’t know what the boxing was about. He only helped one of Trump’s employees land a few boxes in an SUV. He had no reason to assume that the boxes had any special content.
The investigators most likely do not know what was in the boxes either. But the suspicious timing of the action leads them to believe Trump may have been hiding something from authorities.
In addition, there are findings that he supposedly had his staff carry out a dress rehearsal in which the removal of documents was practiced. This is said to have taken place even before Trump was informed of the suspicions raised against him by a subpoena in May 2022.
Accusation of renewed obstruction of justice
Should these suspicions turn out to be true, Trump would be massively burdened with the allegation of obstruction of justice. It wouldn’t be the first time a special counsel has concluded Trump was guilty of this crime.
In 2019, special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that the then-president had obstructed investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. However, the suspicion that Trump himself had cooperated with the Russian government could not be confirmed.
Dispute about the correct release of the documents
There had already been media reports on the status of the investigation last week. The news channel CNN reportedalso citing anonymous sources, that the National Archives plans to turn over documents to Special Counsel Smith.
These would prove that Trump and his advisors were already in the know during his tenure on how to properly release state government documents.
Just two weeks ago, in an interview with CNN presenter Kaitlan Collins, Trump again claimed that he had acted correctly under the Presidential Records Act: the documents were automatically released when he took them with him. However, according to this law, the management of such records is the responsibility of the National Archives.
Biden also stored secret documents without permission
Trump is not the only American leader who kept secret government documents with him. Such documents were also found on his Vice President Mike Pence and the incumbent President Joe Biden.
In March, National Archives officials testified before a House committee that since the administration of Ronald Reagan, every US administration has improperly handled classified documents. Reagan was in office from 1981 to 1989.
However, the Trump, Pence and Biden cases were the first time that such important documents were so obviously missing that the Justice Department had to be involved.
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