The FBI is investigating former Republican President Donald Trump for various crimes, including obstruction of justice and violating the espionage law.
The FBI operation in Florida to recover classified documentation owned by Donald Trump served to seize highly sensitive reports. And it could mean that he faces very serious crimes. Among the boxes found by federal agents there were up to 11 folders of classified information. Among these were numerous files marked with the “top secret” logo, the highest security level in the United States. Circumstances that are the basis for the federal agency's search warrant for Mar-a-Lago. In which an investigation of Trump for obstruction of Justice and a possible violation of the Espionage Act is included.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the federal police operation resulted in the recovery of up to 20 boxes of documentation, according to the inventory carried out after the intervention in the Florida mansion. In these were folders of photos, a handwritten note and the executive order granting pardon to former Trump adviser Roger Stone. Another part of the rescued documentation included information about the "president of France", in reference to Emmanuel Macron. While others were intended to be for exclusive consultation in government buildings.
The content of this documentation is what would have motivated an unprecedented investigation by the FBI against a former president. As Politico reports, the Mar-a-Lago search warrant shows that Trump is being investigated for violating the Espionage Act. To these possible crimes would be added the obstruction of Justice and the elimination and destruction of files. A series of irregularities that can imply sentences of millions in fines or imprisonment.
These documents indicate that investigators consider a serious threat to national security that Trump would have taken all this documentation. The fear that its content could be disseminated is what caused the US Attorney General, Merrick Garland, to approve something as unprecedented as the registration of a property belonging to a former president of the country.
Offenses punishable by jail
The crimes for which the former president is being investigated can have different consequences. For starters, he and anyone who helped him take and hide the documents may have broken federal law. The most serious offense would be selling state secrets to a foreign government. Although the precedents correspond to much minor violations of the Espionage Law, as has happened to several officials found guilty for possessing documents to which one should not have access.
To this must be added the accusation that he may have hidden or destroyed official documents. Some facts that are punished with more than three years in prison and the prohibition to access public office. For this to happen, the investigators will have to prove that the former president knew that by taking the boxes of classified information he was doing something contrary to the law.
Various levels of security
All this documentation is collected in a three-page list, which is part of another seven-page file. Within the latter would also be that search warrant for the Mar-a-Lago mansion, which may be made public soon. Something that will happen after Trump himself supported the attorney general's initiative, who asked the judge to allow him to lift the secret in the face of criticism and attacks from Trump and his supporters behind the record.
The list highlights the references to the protection of the different documents recovered by the FBI. These range from those that are "various classified", "top secret" or "compartmentalized sensitive information", the latter being the less protected classified information than the previous ones. Specifically, there were four folders of top secret or “top secret” documents, three of secret documents and another three of confidential documentation.
These latest revelations come after learning that among the documentation that Trump had in Mar-a-Lago there would be reports related to nuclear weapons. Something that the former president has described as "montage" in a message from the social network owned by him, Truth Social. In fact, several of his collaborators have assured that the information obtained in Florida had already been declassified before he finished his term.
Doubts about his candidacy
These serious accusations against Trump, which are as unprecedented as a search of a former president's home, could cost him his new candidacy in the 2024 elections. But it is not clear that they can prevent him. Although the corresponding laws establish that the person responsible for such a crime "shall lose his office and be disqualified from holding any office in the United States", the US Constitution does not specify that this is a limitation to be president.
As experts consulted by media outlets such as The Washington Post point out, a possible conviction of Trump will be a "constitutional challenge", since nothing like this has ever happened. The constitutional text of the country is the one that establishes the requirements to be president. Nowhere does it say that being convicted of a crime, including one involving public documents, can prevent someone from holding office.
