Tag: classified documents

DOJ has more evidence of possible Trump obstruction in classified docs probe: report

The legal hits keep coming against former President Trump.

The Justice Department and FBI found new evidence of possible obstruction by the GOP firebrand tied to their investigation into classified documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago last year, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

After Trump’s advisors received a subpoena in May demanding the records back, the 76-year-old ex-commander-in-chief leafed through some of the boxes of top-secret government documents in an apparent effort to keep certain things in his possession, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the probe.


The Justice Department and FBI found new evidence of possible obstruction tied to their investigation into documents recovered at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago last year, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
Getty Images

The FBI then seized 11 sets of classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate during a raid in August.

Some of the government records from the raid were marked as highly classified.

Investigators also have evidence that indicates Trump told others to mislead government officials in early 2022 – before the May subpoena – when the National Archives and Records Administration was working to get back documents from Trump’s time in the White House, the Washington Post reported.


The FBI then seized 11 sets of classified documents from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate during a raid in August.
The FBI then seized 11 sets of classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate during a raid in August.
Getty Images

Documents seized during the Aug. 8 search by the FBI of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida are spotted.
AP

The latest revelation comes amid a myriad of criminal probes the former president is facing, including the indictment issued last week in Manhattan over hush money paid to pornstar Stormy Daniels.

The classified documents probe is one of two criminal inquiries into the 2024 presidential contender spearheaded by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

The special counsel is also looking into whether Trump tried to block Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.


Donald Trump continues his daily golf outing near his Mar-A-Lago, Palm Bach, Florida home, despite the former president having been indicted.
Mega for NY Post

The FBI declined to comment on the report, but Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the probes in a statement to the Washington Post.

“The witch-hunts against President Trump have no basis in facts or law,” he said.

“The deranged special counsel and the DoJ have now resorted to prosecutorial misconduct by illegally leaking information to corrupt the legal process and weaponize the justice system in order to manipulate public opinion and conduct election interference, because they are clearly losing all across the board.”

The federal probes are only part of Trump’s legal headaches.

The former president is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan court this Tuesday over hush-money payments made on his behalf to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

Trump also faces a Georgia inquiry into whether or not he tried to overturn the 2020 election which he lost to President Biden, 80. 

With Post wires

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Two people who searched Trump properties for classified documents testify before grand jury

Two people hired to search for classified material last year at properties belonging to former President Donald Trump have testified before a federal grand jury, according to a report.

Both individuals provided the panel investigating the 76-year-old former president’s mishandling of classified documents with roughly three hours of testimony, according to CNN.

The duo were hired to search Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, country club, Trump Tower in New York, an office in Florida, and a storage unit in the Sunshine State, according to the report. 

In November of last year, lawyers hired by Trump found at least two documents marked as classified while searching a storage facility in West Palm Beach, Florida and handed the material over to the FBI, according to multiple reports.

The search party was organized by Trump to ensure that he had fully complied with a May 2022 grand jury subpoena ordering the handover of all materials with classified markings at the former president’s properties.

Those files were reportedly discovered by the two people who recently testified before the federal grand jury. 


Lawyers for Trump found two documents marked as classified last year in November.
Getty Images

The search came after an August 2022 FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate where hundreds of documents with classified markings were seized. 

Special Counsel Jack Smith, appointed by the Justice Department in November,  is reportedly considering charges related to violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice in connection with the former president’s mishandling of classified documents.

Trump insists that he did nothing wrong and publicly said that he declassified all the material found at his properties post-presidency. 

According to CNN, Smith’s team has been pushing to access files on the laptop of at least one staff member close to Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The special counsel is reportedly seeking to determine if there is an electronic paper trail related to the classified documents.

Since Trump’s classified document scandal emerged late last year, President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence have also turned over highly sensitive material to the National Archives that they say was inadvertently removed from the White House and stored at their residences or offices. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Robert Hur earlier this month to investigate Biden’s mishandling of sensitive documents, some reportedly related to Iran, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. 

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Donald Trump says there’s no formal declassification process

Former President Donald Trump in a Wednesday night interview again insisted he had declassified the records seized by the feds at Mar-a-Lago — and said there’s no definitive document declassification process for US heads of state.

Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that aired shortly after an appeals court ruled the Justice Department can have access to the documents seized from the former president’s Florida estate as part of their criminal investigation into the matter.

The 45th president told Hannity the documents were declassified when he left the White House, but didn’t say how.

“There doesn’t have to be a process, there can be a process, but there doesn’t have to be,” Trump said to the conservative news host. “You’re the president, you make that decision.”

“If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, ‘It’s declassified.’ Even by thinking about it,” Trump told Sean Hannity.

According to Trump, every document seized by the FBI was declassified by him before leaving office.
REUTERS

The ex-president has been under investigation by the Justice Department for taking classified records from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.

The trove of roughly 11,000 documents, dozens of which contained classified markings, were seized by the FBI in a raid at the Florida estate on Aug. 8.

“I declassified everything,” Trump told Hannity Wednesday night.

Trump’s lawyers, at a Tuesday hearing for the DOJ case, refused to confirm if the records were in fact declassified by the former president.

In a court filing ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Trump’s lawyers signaled they didn’t want to answer questions about the declassification status — because it could be part of the former’s president’s defense if he is ever indicted.

While Trump said he declassified the documents, his legal team is keeping quit on the matter.
REUTERS

The FBI also said Trump failed to mention he had supposedly declassified the files and handled the documents “as if they were still classified,” according to court papers revealed earlier in the month.

It was only after the raid that the former president said he had declassified them.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Exit mobile version