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Donald Trump on August 10th in New York
Photo: Julia Nikhinson/AP
Domestically, there is practically only one topic in the US at the moment: Donald Trump and the documents that the FBI was looking for a week ago in the former US President's private home.
The suspicion weighs heavily: Trump could have taken highly confidential papers from the White House to Florida and thus endangered state secrets.
But Trump wouldn't be Trump if he didn't seek an attack even in this politically precarious situation.
He wrote on Sunday on Truth Social, a platform he co-founded, that federal police "knowingly" took material from his Mar-a-Lago property that they shouldn't have taken.
He asked the FBI to return the documents immediately.
According to the 76-year-old, these are documents that are confidential between the client and the lawyer.
Trump had repeatedly stormed against the judiciary and the federal police after the search on Monday.
And large sections of his party are joining him: after the unprecedented search of the property in Florida, the US Republicans are sowing doubts about the work of the judiciary.
“We have a number of concerns.
One of them is whether or not the raid itself was justified," said Rep. Mike Turner, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday.
Republican Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has claimed the "establishment" is after Trump.
According to an FBI list, last Monday the agents found, among other things, sets of documents classified as "Top Secret/SCI", which are top secret and may only be viewed in special government institutions.
Four of the confiscated sets of documents were classified as »Top Secret«, three more as »Secret«, and the remaining three as »Confidential«.
The search warrant lists three criminal offenses as possible grounds for possible seizures – including collecting, transmitting or losing defense information.
This falls under the US Espionage Act.
Republican Rep. Turner nevertheless claimed that the FBI's list of seized documents says nothing about the nature of the documents themselves.
"We got this list from the FBI, but we're not sure if it's classified material or not," Turner told CNN.
Trump followed the raid on security cameras
The Washington Post reported that Trump was already sitting with his attorneys in New York during Monday's search to discuss another case.
However, the session was interrupted by a phone call informing the former president of what was happening in Florida, the newspaper quoted Trump's attorney Ron Fischetti as saying.
Trump and his team then followed the search through security cameras.
Meanwhile, the White House again emphasized that it did not want to comment on the investigation.
President Joe Biden has made it clear in the past that the Justice Department is completely independent in investigating law enforcement matters, Biden's spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on US television.
"This is a law enforcement matter and the Justice Department will proceed as it sees fit."
Last year, National Archives officials discovered that Trump had taken a slew of documents and other government materials when he left the White House at the end of his term in January 2021.
According to the law, this material should have been given to the National Archives.
Trump finally handed over several documents to the agency earlier this year.
However, the officials had suspected that Trump or his team were still withholding important documents, according to US media.
jok/dpa