This is the first time in the history of the United States. The FBI raided the home of Donald Trump this week, suspecting the former US president of violating a US espionage law that strictly regulates the possession of sensitive documents related to national security. In particular, they seized documents classified as “top secret”.
• Why was Trump’s house raided?
The former US president himself announced it on his social network and in a press release last Monday. Donald Trump said his luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida was raided by “a lot of FBI agents.”
“Our nation lives in dark times. My beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is under siege and has been raided and occupied by numerous FBI agents,” Donald Trump said in a statement, saying to himself. victim of “political persecution”.
He said it was a “neither necessary nor appropriate” search and also complained that FBI agents “searched the closets of the first lady” Melania Trump.
If Donald Trump did not specify the reason for this search, the Washington Post For his part, he revealed that he was linked to suspicions of mishandling classified documents, according to two sources close to the former president.
To shed light on this raid that he “personally approved” and because this case “is of great public interest,” Justice Minister Merrick Garland asked Thursday that a judge make public the order authorizing this FBI act. A request welcomed by Donald Trump, who assured on Friday that the documents recovered by the police had all been “declassified”.
A federal judge in Florida finally issued the warrant authorizing the search on Friday, along with an inventory of the seized documents. Investigators suspect that the Republican violated a US law on espionage that very strictly regulates the possession of confidential documents related to national security, some of which should only be consulted or viewed in secure buildings.
• What documents were seized?
In total, some thirty boxes were seized by the US federal police, as well as folders with photos and a handwritten note. The inventory indicates in particular that documents classified as “top secret” or “secret” or “confidential” have been found, as well as a document on “the president of France”, without giving further details.
According to the Washington Postsome documents sought by the FBI could also be related to nuclear weapons.
• What law are you suspected of breaking?
Upon leaving the White House, American presidents are subject to strict rules regarding documents related to the exercise of their office. the Presidential Records Actestablished in 1978, requires the outgoing president to send all his emails, letters, memos and other business documents to the National Archives, a federal agency responsible for preserving them.
Donald Trump is thus suspected of negligence in the management of these documents. He had taken, when he left the White House in January 2021, fifteen boxes of documents, which Archives agents had to recover in January, already in Mar-a-Lago.
• What is the risk?
If the former president does indeed possess confidential documents illegally, in theory he risks “fines and jail,” according to Nicole Bacharan, a historian and political scientist specializing in the United States, interviewed by The Figaro.
“This theory is limited by the political stakes of the investigation. It’s hard to imagine a former president going to prison for this. On the other hand, if FBI investigators manage to recover documents that Donald Trump knowingly hid from the files to erase traces of his exchanges or decisions, in the context of January 6, for example, he may above all risk ineligibility.” , he explained to the newspaper.
At the same time, Donald Trump remains at the center of other legal cases. A parliamentary investigation seeks in particular to shed light on the former president’s role in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2020.
The former real estate magnate was also subjected to a sworn hearing this Wednesday before the New York attorney general, who is investigating suspicions of financial tax fraud within the family group of the Trump Organization.
Source: BFM TV
