By Eric Tucker
Associated Press
The FBI affidavit that justified the search warrant for former President Donald Trump's mansion in Florida, published this Friday, sheds light on what was contained in the 15 boxes he took.
But many questions remain, especially since half of the affidavit was blacked out.
The document provides new details about the volume and top-secret nature of what was recovered from Mar-a-Lago in January.
And it shows how Justice Department officials had raised concerns months before the search that high-level government secrets were being illegally stored and before they returned in August with a court-approved warrant and found more classified documents in his home. .
All of this raises the question of
whether a crime has been committed and, if so, by whom
.
Answers may not come quickly.
The affidavit that justified the search suggests that Trump had documents on spy communications
Aug. 26, 202202:13
A department official this month described the investigation as in its early stages, and suggested more work lies ahead as investigators review the documents they withdrew and continue to interview witnesses.
At the very least, the investigation is a political distraction for Trump as he lays the groundwork for a potential presidential bid.
Then there is the obvious legal danger.
Here's a look at what's next:
What is the FBI investigating?
None of the government legal documents released so far point to Trump — or anyone else — as a possible target of the investigation.
But the warrant and accompanying affidavit make it clear that
the investigation is active and criminal in nature.
The department is investigating
possible violations of multiple laws,
including the Espionage Act that regulates the collection, transmission or loss of national defense information.
The other laws deal with the mutilation and removal of records, as well as the destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations.
Former President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower, on August 10, 2022, in New York, on his way to the attorney general's office. Julia Nikhinson / AP
The investigation began quietly with a referral from the National Archives and Records Administration, which recovered 15 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago in January, 14 of which contained classified information.
In all, according to the FBI affidavit, officials found 184 classified documents, including some that suggested they contained information from highly sensitive human sources.
Several had what appeared to be Trump's handwritten notes, the affidavit says.
The FBI has spent months investigating how the documents got from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, and whether other classified records might exist at the property.
The bureau has also sought to identify the person or persons "who may have removed or retained classified information without authorization and/or in an unauthorized space," the affidavit states.
So far, the FBI has interviewed a "significant number of civilian witnesses," according to a Justice Department report released Friday, and is seeking "further information" from them.
The FBI has not identified all of the "possible criminal confederates nor located all of the evidence related to their investigation."
This is what the document that justified the search of Trump looks like with the editions made by the Department of Justice
Aug. 26, 202203:30
Will anyone be charged?
It's hard to say at this point.
To obtain a search warrant, federal agents must convince a judge that there is probable cause to believe there is evidence of a crime at the location they want to search.
But search warrants are not automatic precursors to criminal prosecution and certainly do not indicate that charges are imminent.
The laws in question are serious crimes that carry prison sentences.
One of the laws, involving the mishandling of national defense information, has been used in recent years to prosecute a government contractor who kept reams of sensitive records in his Maryland home (he was sentenced to nine years in prison). ) and an employee of the National Security Agency who transmitted classified information to someone who was not authorized to receive it (the case is pending).
This can be expected from the affidavit they will reveal about the search of Mar-a-Lago
Aug. 26, 202201:27
Attorney General Merrick Garland has not disclosed his opinion on the matter.
Asked last month about Trump in the context of a separate investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riots on Capitol Hill, he replied: "no person is above the law."
What has Trump argued?
Trump, irate over the investigation into the records, issued a statement Friday saying he and his team have cooperated with the Justice Department and that their representatives "gave them a lot."
That is at odds with the portrayal of Trump's team in the affidavit and with the fact that the FBI search occurred despite warnings months before that the documents were not being stored properly and that there was no place safe for them anywhere in Mar-a-Lago.
A letter made public as part of the affidavit forecasts the arguments Trump's legal team intends to make as the investigation progresses.
A May 25 letter from attorney M. Evan Corcoran to Jay Bratt, the Justice Department's chief of counterintelligence, articulates a robust and expansive view of the executive branch.
Expert describes Trump's lawsuit against FBI for the search of his house as "political distraction"
Aug. 23, 202200:57
Corcoran claimed that it is a "fundamental principle" that a president has absolute authority to declassify documents, though he does not actually say that Trump has done so.
He also said that the main law governing the mishandling of classified information does not apply to the president.
The statute he cited in the letter was not among those that the affidavit suggests the Justice Department is basing its investigation on.
And in a footnote to the affidavit, an FBI agent noted that the National Defense Information Act does not use the term classified information.
The former president published a message on the social network owned by him Truth Social: “They left a page!”, accompanied by the image of a mostly censored text (imitating the style of the court report) in which the only visible words were “ Make the US great again”, his motto in the 2016 electoral campaign, according to the Efe news agency.
What has the Biden Administration said?
The White House has been remarkably tight-lipped about the investigation, and its officials have repeatedly said they will let the Justice Department do its job.
The national security spokesman.
John Kirby, responding to a question this week about whether the Administration would do a damage assessment on sensitive secrets at Mar-a-Lago, responded that he didn't want to get ahead of the FBI.
President Joe Biden appeared Friday to scoff at the idea that Trump could have simply declassified every document in his possession, telling reporters: “I just want you to know that I have declassified everything in the world.
I am president and I can do it… come on!”
He then said he would "let the Justice Department deal with it."