Documents seized in August from former US President Donald Trump’s Florida home contain highly confidential information about Iran and China that were at risk of exposing US espionage methods, the report said Friday. Washington Post.
Among the documents recovered by Justice Department investigators are one describing Iran’s missile program and another describing “highly sensitive intelligence work on China,” the paper said, citing people familiar with the case. .
Investigators seized about 11,000 documents in the operation to uncover what the government said should have been in U.S. records but that Trump illegally took when he left the White House in January 2021.
Of all these documents, just over 100 were considered confidential, some classified as top secret and normally kept confidential, and are only allowed to be consulted by a limited number of people.
At Mar-a-Lago’s home, however, the documents were kept in places including Trump’s personal office, with little security, the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department justified the operation on national security grounds and said Trump was suspected of violating the Espionage Act, which prohibits the retention and sharing of highly confidential documents related to national defense.
The former president was also suspected of obstruction after his lawyers told the department in June that no more government documents were being withheld at Mar-a-Lago, but he was ultimately not charged.
Many of the documents, which mixed government documents with Trump’s personal legal and financial documents, as well as newspaper clippings and memorabilia, will be returned to the former US leader. The Justice Department said on Thursday that in the government’s official documents, there are only 15 documents contesting the privilege by both sides.
Source: DN
