Donald Trump illegally retained documents, including some pertaining to government intelligence-gathering and sources - among the country’s most closely-held secrets, the US Department of Justice on Friday.
Washington | The US Department of Justice on Friday said it was investigating former President Donald Trump for removing White House records because it believed he had illegally retained documents, including some pertaining to government intelligence-gathering and sources - among the country’s most closely-held secrets.
Nevertheless, the affidavit could help explain why the Justice Department sought court approval for an August 8 search at the Florida resort. According to the document released on Friday, an unidentified FBI agent said the FBI had reviewed and identified 184 documents “bearing classification markings” containing “national defence information,” after Trump in January returned 15 boxes of government records to the U.S. National Archives.
The Justice Department also said on Friday in a separate batch of unsealed records that it has “a significant number of civilian witnesses” who are helping with its investigation, a rare disclosure for a probe in such early stages.AdvertisementTrump on Friday complained on social media that the affidavit was “heavily redacted,” and he demanded that the judge in the case recuse himself without giving any apparent basis - a request that Trump’s legal team has not formally made with the court.
The newly released records also showed how Trump’s attorneys sought to downplay the Justice Department’s concerns about the records. The FBI agent said a preliminary review of the records the Archives received in the 15 boxes, which was conducted between May 16-18, found 184 “unique documents” labelled as classified. Of those, 67 were marked “confidential” while 92 were marked as “secret” and 25 marked as “top secret.”
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