‘Top Secret’ Stored in Florida: Grand Jury Indicts Trump

He condemns the ruthlessness aimed at blocking his path to the White House. Some would rather see this as proof of his disrespect for rules, even those protecting undercover spies in enemy countries. Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury as part of an investigation into classified documents he kept in boxes and delivered to his Florida residence.

This is a new criminal trial that is being opened against a 2024 presidential candidate already implicated in a bribery case. This is the first case at the federal level.

Trump faces at least seven charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice. Speaking to CNN on Thursday, his attorney Jim Trusty said the charges include conspiracy, misrepresentation, obstruction of justice and illegal possession of classified documents under the Espionage Act (Espionage Act). Facts that can be punished by up to 20 years in prison each and which are summarized in American law. The indictment remains classified, and Donald Trump himself has not yet read its content. His lawyer expects to do so on Tuesday when his client appears in federal court in Miami.

Donald Trump told his Truth social network that he was subpoenaed in federal court in Miami on Tuesday. “I am an innocent person,” he wrote.

In August 2022, as part of a nearly year-long dispute between Trump’s teams and the National Archives, FBI investigators visited his property in Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida, where they found and seized almost 13,000 documents that were there. shouldn’t.

Against the background of the legal battle – in addition to Trump’s appeals, the American media demanded that the case be made available, given its historical nature – when checking the first batch of documents, out of 184 classified documents, 67 documents were identified. stamped “CONFIDENTIAL”, 92 documents stamped “SECRET” and 25 stamped the highest degree of protection “TOP SECRET”. Some of them were labeled “HCS”, which contained information about human sources, whether they were undercover spies or CIA informants.

The cleaning of the second set of exhibits revealed that the real estate tycoon had stored very sensitive information about China or Iran’s missile program in his home under improper conditions.

The penalties incurred can be up to 20 years in prison.

After accusing the FBI of planting evidence in his home, Donald Trump suggested that he declassify the documents himself when he was in office. He did not prove this, and his lawyers did not reflect this argument in the documents submitted to the court. On the other hand, they referred to the “executive privilege”, the doctrine of which they are still trying to expand, in order to prevent the Department of Justice from accessing some of these documents. A federal appeals court dismissed that argument last December.

One of Trump’s lawyers involved in the Mar-a-Lago search, Evan Corcoran, has since become a witness in the case.

Donald Trump is not the only high-ranking American figure to keep secret documents. A few months ago, lawyers for current President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence announced they were cooperating with the Justice Department after they discovered the two men had kept documents that were not related to their duties. Biden’s papers date back to his tenure in the US Senate and his role as vice president. A few days ago, the Justice Department closed the investigation into Mike Pence without charge. He formalized his candidacy for the White House.