The U.S. Department of Justice said it had evidence that classified documents were deliberately withheld from the FBI when the agency tried to retrieve them from former President Donald Trump’s Florida property in June, prompting an unprecedented search of his home.
In a 54-page dossier, prosecutors presented their evidence of obstruction of justice Tuesday, claiming for the first time that Trump aides falsely confirmed that in June the former president had returned all government records held by him. After leaving, he hid in his home. The White House in January 2021.
They also revealed that on the first trip to the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach in June for FBI agents to retrieve the records, Trump’s lawyers “explicitly prohibited government officials from opening or looking inside boxes in a warehouse.” .
In a filing submitted to the U.S. District Court for the southern district of Florida, the department also stated, “The government has also developed evidence that government records were kept and removed from storage, and that efforts were made to thwart the government’s investigation.” Said.
The Justice Department’s filings precede a hearing before Judge Aileen Cannon in West Palm Beach on Thursday. It is considering Trump’s request to appoint a special expert to conduct an inside look at documents, many of which were classified as classified, that were seized at Mar-a-Lago on Aug.
The search of Trump’s home on August 8 was a significant escalation of one of the few federal and state investigations Trump is facing.
The Justice Department said on Tuesday it had tried several times to get all the records.
But he eventually developed evidence to suggest that more material remained in Mar-a-lago and was hidden from researchers.
The FBI later removed 33 additional boxes and other items during its search on August 8, some of which were marked “top secret” – a ranking level reserved for the country’s best-kept secrets.
Trump’s defenses as to why he withheld the materials varied and did not offer a reason why he did not return all the recordings.
source: Noticias
