Former US President Donald Trump on Sunday demanded the FBI return some documents that were searched last Monday at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
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“I have just learned that the FBI, through the infamous Mar-a-Lago raid, has taken boxes containing attorney-client privileged material, as well as ‘executive’ material which they know they should never have taken,” said the exasperated 45th President of the States. United States via his profile on the Truth Social.
Mr Trump demanded the FBI return the documents to him “immediately”.
This new outburst, after sharing several messages denouncing a search of his home, comes after Saturday night’s broadcast of a Fox News report alleging that the FBI seized classified documents protected by the relationship between the client and his attorney.
Other documents will be protected by Executive Privilege, which protects some of the secrets the president and his advisors share.
Last Monday, the FBI appeared in Mar-a-Lago with a search warrant in his pocket, looking for classified documents, as part of an investigation into a possible violation of the US Espionage Act, which strictly regulates the possession of relevant classified documents. for national security.
In total, investigators took about thirty boxes of documents, as well as photo files. Some of these documents have been classified as Top Secret, according to the FBI.
As The New York Times reported on Sunday, the FBI may have decided to take action because it believes Mr. Trump and his team knowingly decided to hide things.
Indeed, according to information from the daily, the former president’s lawyer signed a proclamation in June under which Mr. Trump pledged to hand over the documents to the government. This declaration was signed after a visit by Jay A. Pratt, the senior head of counterintelligence in the United States, to Mar-a-Lago on June 3.
Since the search, Donald Trump has sought to galvanize his electoral base, many of whose supporters have gathered in Mar-a-Lago, by denouncing the “witch hunt” of which he has always been the victim.
The former president also downplayed the fact that there were some declassified documents.
This case may recall, in some ways, but in a very different role, Donald Trump’s smear campaign against his Democratic opponent in 2016, Hillary Clinton, who found himself mired in a scandal for receiving some top-secret emails to his counterpart. A private email address.
