Among the documents recovered by Justice Department investigators in Palm Beach, one described Iran’s missile program and another “described highly sensitive intelligence work directed at China,” the newspaper said, citing sources close to the investigation.
Investigators seized about 11,000 documents in the process to recover what the current Democratic administration said to Joe Biden should be in US archives, but Trump illegally took them when he left the White House in January 2021.
Among them, there were just over 100 secret documents, some of them top secret, usually kept under lock and key, to which only a few people were allowed access.
However, at the Mar-a-Lago compound’s residence, the documents were kept in Trump’s personal office, with little security, according to the Justice Department.
The administration itself justified the operation on national security grounds, citing Trump’s suspicion of violating the Espionage Act, which prohibits the retention and exchange of highly classified documents related to national defense.
He is also suspected of obstruction of justice after Trump’s lawyers told the department in June that there were no more government documents confiscated in Mar-a-Lago, but that Trump has not been charged.
After the billionaire’s defense suit, the court appointed an independent expert to review the documents and assess which of them might be covered by the franchise claims.
(article corrected at 23:40)
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