More than a hundred documents classified as classified, classified and top secret among 33 funds recovered by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida residence, were seized during the August 8 search.
Posted at 12:11pm
This was revealed by the full inventory (8 pages) of the boxes announced Friday morning by the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The inventory also revealed how cluttered these boxes are as classified documents stand alongside simple newspaper articles.
This is the case, for example, box No. 2, its content 99 newspaper and magazine articles published between January 2017 and October 2018 with 2 classified documents, 15 classified documents, 7 top-secret documents, 69 non-confidential documents and photos, 43 blank files marked with “Confidential” and 28 blank files marked “Return to Military and Aids”.
Note that no specific details about the content of “classified” documents are disclosed and that there are many documents that do not have a classification.
According to the inventory, seven of the 33 boxes were retrieved directly from the office of the former president of the United States. The rest was in a warehouse in his club.
The publication of this inventory follows a request by Mr Trump’s lawyers who are seeking third-party intervention to conduct a more thorough examination and determine whether their client has executive privilege over them.
PHOTO JON ELSWICK, Associate Journalist
Example of inventory pages posted Friday morning regarding chests seized at Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022.
Earlier this week, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers compared the whole story to bickering over books that were returned late to the library.
On Friday morning, Judge Eileen Cannon ordered the ban on fund inventories to be lifted, but did not specify whether that third party would intervene.
In favor of the Democrats
Without commenting on the legal aspect of this new development, Raphael Jacob, Research Associate in the Raoul Dandurand Chair, noted that in political terms, “it is clearly in the interest of the Democrats.”
Politically, it keeps history alive. But he said it would have remained that way regardless of what the judge decided on this specific issue. This is clearly in the Democrats’ favour. Whenever there is talk of improper and illegal behavior by Donald Trump, he pushes independent voters away from the Republican Party. Every day we talk about Donald Trump, we don’t talk about Joe Biden. Every day we talk about Mar-a-Lago, we don’t talk about other problems, like inflation, that hurt the US administration. »
Separately, Jacob said that even if Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s midterm elections, November 8, the Justice Department’s work on this file will continue.
Republicans can put both public and political pressure on the Department of Justice. How ? For example, by issuing subpoenas based on subpoenas or orders to submit documents to Congress. But the Ministry of Justice is subject to the executive authority, hence the presidency. »
On the other hand, the Republicans could, if they regain control of Congress, terminate the January 6 commission investigating the attack on Capitol Hill by Donald Trump supporters who refused to recognize the results of the November 2020 presidential election.