FBI agents seized documents classified as top secret, as well as those relating to the “President of France”, during their raid on the home of former US President Donald Trump, the FBI reported on Friday. Wall Street Journalat a time when justice is preparing to make public the order that authorizes this unprecedented raid in the United States.
The agents of the American federal police seized “twenty” boxes, assures this Friday the Wall Street Journal who says he had access to a three-page inventory of what was collected on Monday during this search. Or, classified top secret or confidential documents, photographs and a handwritten note.
The newspaper assures that in that inventory there is information about the “president of France”. No other details are given about the nature of this information, or whether it is the current French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Regarding nuclear weapons
The operation, which angered Trump supporters alleging “political persecution,” took place Monday at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
It seems to have had the objective of recovering highly confidential documents stolen by the former president when he left the White House. According to Washington Postsome of the documents sought could be related to nuclear weapons.
Donald Trump denounced a “brainstorm” early this Friday on his social network Truth Social.
“It must be recognized that this information as it comes to light – and we will know more about it later – is highly confidential, well above the level of top secret,” said the Democratic president of the House of Representatives on Friday. Nancy Pelosi talking about a potentially “very serious” matter.
Make the search warrant public
The very unusual willingness of the Justice Department to make the search warrant public, announced Thursday by Justice Merrick Garland, was welcomed by Donald Trump.
“Not only will I not oppose the publication of the documents (…) but I will go further by encouraging their immediate publication,” the Republican billionaire wrote on Thursday night, who however refrained from making the copy of the document public. court order I had. He got.
Donald Trump’s lawyers have until 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. GMT) to respond to Merrick Garland’s proposal, who assured this Thursday, during an exceptional press conference, that he had “personally approved” the raid.
The Minister of Justice also denounced, during his brief televised intervention, the “unfounded attacks” by the Republicans against his ministry and against the FBI.
“An important public interest”
“The ministry does not take these types of decisions lightly,” he said, adding that the case was of “important public interest” three months before mid-term legislative elections.
In asking for the secrecy of the court order to be lifted, the Justice Department cited, without contradicting them, statements by representatives of Donald Trump indicating that the FBI was seeking White House filings, possibly classified defense secrets.
Monday’s search was the first in history targeting a former US president. Outraged, Donald Trump told Truth Social on Monday that his attorneys were “fully” cooperating with authorities when “suddenly and without warning, Mar-a-Lago was raided, at 6:30 am, by a VERY large number of agents.
He complained in particular that FBI agents “searched the closets of the first lady” Melania Trump. On Wednesday she even suggested that the federal police may have “planted” false evidence against her during this operation.
Republican sympathizers, although known for their support of law enforcement, criticized the FBI’s intervention, so much so that an association of agents denounced calls “unacceptable (…) to violence against the police.”
Suspected financial and tax fraud
On Thursday, a gunman who had tried to enter the FBI offices in Ohio (northern United States) was shot dead by police after a long confrontation.
After the search, the Republican tenors had joined their former president, who maintains a strong control over the conservative party and plans to be a presidential candidate again in 2024.
The former real estate magnate, at the center of legal news in the United States, was also subjected to a hearing under oath against the New York attorney general on Wednesday. He then repeatedly invoked his right not to answer questions under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
Letitia James, the highest ranking magistrate in the state of New York, has been investigating since 2019 for suspected financial and tax fraud within the Trump Organization family group.
Source: BFM TV
