Donald Trump: Top secret documents seized by FBI amid 2024 election run hint
He’s accused of insurrection, strangling agents, smashing plates, dodging taxes, flushing documents and hoarding nuclear secrets. An FBI raid may be Trump’s best pitch yet.
World
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News.
FBI agents seized records marked “top secret” during their search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida estate, according to documents made public Friday in a probe that includes possible violations of the US Espionage Act.
The search warrant and related materials, unsealed by a Florida judge, showed agents carted away a significant number of items from the raid, which ignited a political firestorm in an already bitterly divided country.
The warrant, which was personally approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland, authorized the FBI to search the “45 office” -- a reference to the 45th US president’s private office at his Mar-a-Lago residence -- and storage rooms.
It directed them to seize documents and records “illegally possessed” in violation of three criminal statutes, including one falling under the Espionage Act, which makes it a crime to illegally obtain or retain national security information.
Trump, who is weighing another White House run in 2024, vehemently denounced the FBI raid on his Florida home and claimed that all of the material confiscated during the search had been previously “declassified.”
“They didn’t need to ‘seize’ anything,” he said in a statement on his Truth Social platform.
“They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago.” Legal experts cautioned that while the warrant cites the Espionage Act, any potential charges remain unclear and Trump is not necessarily suspected of espionage.
“The Espionage Act encompasses a ton of crimes that have nothing to do with ‘spying,’” Bradley Moss, a national security lawyer, said on Twitter. “It’s about unlawful storing of information relating to the national defense.” Orin Kerr, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, agreed, saying the “Espionage Act is a pretty broad law about mishandling classified documents, not just espionage.” Among the records seized during the raid were documents marked “Top Secret,” “Secret” and “Confidential.” Some of the papers were marked “SCI” -- sensitive compartmented information -- meaning they were meant to be viewed only in secure government facilities.
TABLES TURN ON TRUMP
In the small Iowa town of Council Bluffs, by the banks of the Missouri River, Trump delivered his closing pitch against Hillary Clinton in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign.
The speech, presciently titled “Follow the Money”, was classic candidate Trump. For 45-odd minutes, Trump riffed his way through prepared remarks until lingering on what was supposed to be a single line pivoting into Clinton’s politics for profit.
As written, the speech made a brief mention of Clinton’s deleted email server and her staff invoking the Fifth Amendment to a Congressional subpoena.
As delivered, Trump rode a wave of audience enthusiasm to turn a single-sentence aside into a three-minute diatribe on Clinton’s staff refusing to answer a long list of charges.
“She deleted and bleached 33,000 emails,” he began, on script, before taking a wild and winding detour.
“Nobody ever heard of the bleaching. Nobody ever heard of it. And they don’t use it, it’s a very expensive process. People don’t use it.
“You know, if somebody sues you and they want your records, and you do that, as a private citizen, it’s, you know where you go.”
He worked the crowd. Four people pleaded the Fifth. No, five, including the server guy. And the ringleaders getting immunity deals. Eventually, Trump landed on the clip that this week went viral, seven years later.
“Like you see on the mob, right? You see the mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment,” he said.
“And then they read a whole list of charges. She’s guilty on every one of them. And then what do they say … But, that’s OK.”
TRUMP TAKES THE FIFTH AMENDMENT
Fast-forward from September, 2016 to August, 2022 and Trump found himself relying on the previously maligned Fifth Amendment, at a blistering average rate of once every 30 seconds.
For about four hours, Trump invoked the Constitutional right not to answer questions, more than 440 times, as New York Attorney-General Letitia James sat across the table.
The Fifth Amendment is a bedrock right of the US legal system that protects its citizens from the state, self-incrimination and coerced confession, and in criminal cases can’t be construed as an inference of guilt.
“The thing is, with regard to the NY State Attorney-General’s investigation, that’s a civil matter,” said Vincent Bonventre, director of New York’s Center for Judicial Process at Albany Law School.
Mr Bonventre told News Corp Australia that the distinction means Ms James can use Trump’s refusal to answer questions against the former president.
“The Attorney-General can submit into court the transcript showing that he took the Fifth Amendment so many times, what questions he was asked, what he was asked to explain, and that he did absolutely nothing to absolve himself,” Mr Bonventre said.
“They can ask the jury to draw a negative inference.”
Since leaving office, Trump continues to face several Congressional, civil and criminal probes over his conduct connected to the 2020 election results and the January 6 Capitol riot, his taxes and Trump Organisation finances, and alleged withholding of classified documents.
Knowing how negatively pleading the Fifth would appear, Trump released a pre-emptive statement that marked a rare defence of his own contradictions.
“I once asked, ‘If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?’” Trump wrote in a statement. “Now I know the answer to that question. When your family, your company, and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated Witch Hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors, and the Fake News Media, you have no choice.”
Coming after the FBI’s unprecedented raid of his Mar-a-Lago home, Trump appeared to connect his decision to plead the Fifth in the State’s civil case with the Federal criminal case; despite the two not being related.
MOUNTING A CASE WITH CLASSIFIED DOCS
In New York, Ms James is investigating whether the Trump Organisation fraudulently inflated the value of real estate properties when applying for bank loans, while understating them with tax authorities to pay less in taxes. She is, as Trump’s 2016 speech at the Mid Atlantic Centre near the western border of the US state of Iowa suggested, “following the money”.
Her office confirmed Ms James sat across from Trump as he “invoked his Fifth Amendment right”, and added she would “pursue the facts and the law wherever they may lead.”
Progress in a parallel criminal investigation into the Trump Organisation and its annual financial statements has stalled, but remains unresolved.
US Attorney-General Merrick Garland, however, indicated there may be more movement on a federal case against Trump connected to the potential mishandling of classified documents sent to Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House in January 2021.
“I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter,” Mr Garland said, adding that a subpoena for the documents had been issued months earlier and that the Department of Justice had filed a motion to make the probable cause public.
The allegation of mishandling classified documents, and Trump connecting his use of the Fifth Amendment to it, has a particular sense of symmetry to that 2016 speech by the Missouri River.
It is, essentially, the same charge that Trump laid against Clinton. While the FBI also investigated her handling of classified documents during the 2016 election, they didn’t take the drastic step of raiding her home and it did not result in charges.
Soon after Trump defended his use of the Fifth, Clinton began fundraising off “But Her Emails” merchandise.
“Just saying!” Clinton said, adding a photo of herself wearing the merch that quickly sold out.
Throwing her “emails” hat in the ring may not be the last throwback to 2016 that comes from this week’s seismic developments in Trump’s legal woes.
Following the FBI raid, Trump galvanised support among Republican voters and GOP faithful who are now calling for the early announcement of a 2024 re-election campaign.
Rather than diminish his standing, the move saw Trump receive support among those seen as his top potential challengers for the candidacy, including former vice president Mike Pence and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Even former Democratic party stars like ex-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang criticised the raid, saying a search for inconsequential archives will undermine legitimate investigations and activate extremism, not the opposite.
In the immediate aftermath of the raid, Trump was reportedly so encouraged that he “made up his mind” about the long speculated 2024 presidential bid and was encouraged to make an announcement “sooner rather than later”.
A campaign-style video was quickly released. Brooding and to the thunderous rumble of a gathering storm, Trump opined America was a nation in decline.
“It is time to start talking about greatness for our country again,” he hinted in the video. “... the best is yet to come.”
Among the remaining vestiges of QAnon followers, the video was seized upon online and scoured for clues, imagery and sloganeering hinting at a Q revival.
Its moody background music was quickly pegged as the 2020 election-era song titled wwg1wga. The initialism in Q parlance stands for Where We Go One, We Go All: An oath of unwavering loyalty to Donald J Trump.
More Coverage
Originally published as Donald Trump: Top secret documents seized by FBI amid 2024 election run hint
‘You have to be good on your own’: JLo breaks silence on split
Jennifer Lopez has revealed she has finally sworn off men as she hints at the real reason behind her split with Ben Affleck, breaking her silence in sensational fashion.
Terror as pilot dies mid-flight
The pilot of an Airbus 350 full of passengers has died midair forcing his co-pilot to make a desperate emergency detour to New York.