Donald Trump has been informed by federal justice that he was personally targeted in an investigation into the White House archives, a new ordeal for the former American president who hopes to win a new mandate in 2024.
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According to several American media outlets, including CNN and the New York Times, federal prosecutors have told Donald Trump’s attorneys that the investigation is no longer limited to those close to the former president, but is also targeting him personally.
He is accused of keeping entire boxes of documents, including some classified as “secret defense” documents, after leaving Washington in 2021, and of resisting their return in violation of federal law.
US media won’t say when the former president was briefed, but his attorneys met with Justice Department officials Monday, including Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who is tasked with independently overseeing the investigation.
Donald Trump, who is currently well ahead of the other candidates for the Republican nomination, always resists any embezzlement and presents himself as a victim of “political persecution”.
“How could the Justice Department indict me if I didn’t do anything,” he wrote Monday on the Truth Social network when his lawyers were received by Department officials.
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In the United States, a 1978 law requires all American presidents to send all their letters, e-mails, and other working documents to the national archives. Another espionage law prohibits anyone from storing classified documents in unauthorized and unsecured locations.
When leaving the presidency to settle into the luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence, Donald Trump nevertheless took entire boxes of files with him.
In January 2022, after several reminders, he agreed to the return of 15 boxes containing more than 200 classified documents.
In a letter, his lawyers then assured that there were no more.
However, after the investigation, federal police concluded that he had not returned everything and that he still kept much of it at his Palm Beach club.
FBI agents were there on August 8 and confiscated around thirty other boxes containing 11,000 documents, some of which were very sensitive, about Iran or China.
His lawyers strongly condemned a media operation and slammed the FBI for what they felt was a needless release of a photo of confiscated documents marked “Top Secret” scattered on a floral patterned rug.
In a bid to silence conspiracy allegations, Attorney General Merrick Garland hired Special Counsel Jack Smith to oversee the investigation and further investigate Donald Trump’s role in the Capitol attack.
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Another special prosecutor is also investigating classified documents found by his attorneys at a former office and home of Democratic President Joe Biden earlier this year.
These embarrassing finds, along with others from ex-Vice President Mike Pence, allowed Donald Trump to downplay his behavior, though Joe Biden has consistently cooperated with justice and voluntarily returned the documents, in much smaller numbers.
The Republican People’s Tribune also used his rival’s discoveries to rally his supporters, who close ranks around him whenever justice strikes him.
This was particularly the case in April, when the New York State Judiciary charged him with falsifying accounting records related to paying $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election in exchange for his silence on an alleged affair.
It was the first time in American history that a former president had been prosecuted.
A Georgia state attorney who has been investigating Republican pressure to change the 2020 presidential election for months is expected to announce the outcome of her investigation in September.