2023-06-10 11:58:06
Donald Trump jeopardized the United States by keeping confidential documents, including military and nuclear secrets, after he left the White House, according to a landmark indictment released on Friday (June 9). In the USA, “the laws are the same for everyone”, said the special prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Jack Smith, revealing this document during a brief televised address. Those who “protecting information related to national defense is essential” et “violating them puts our country in danger”he asserted, asking for a “quick trial” for the Republican billionaire.
” I am innocent “
Donald Trump announced Thursday that he had been indicted by federal justice for his management of the White House archives, a first for a former president, and that he was summoned to court in Miami on Tuesday. ” I am innocent “he had claimed, presenting himself as the victim of a plot orchestrated by his Democratic opponents for him block the road to the White House, whom he hopes to win back in 2024. The indictment, made public on Friday, contains 37 counts, including “unlawful retention of national security information”, “obstruction of justice” et “false testimony”.
United States: what does Donald Trump risk in the archives affair?
In the United States, a law requires presidents to send all their e-mails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives. Another, on espionage, prohibits keeping state secrets in unauthorized and unsecured places. In January 2021, when he left the White House to settle in his luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Donald Trump had however taken away dozens of boxes full of files. According to the indictment, they remained piled up at the scene of a ” ballroom “before being transported to a “disposal” accessible from the swimming pool, where certain documents marked with the mention ” top secret “ were seen sprawled on the ground. A photo reproduced in this document shows stacks of boxes behind a toilet in a large bathroom.
A spectacular search
In January 2022, after several reminders, he agreed to return 15 boxes containing nearly 200 classified documents. The federal police, however, estimated that he had not returned everything and still kept a lot in his club in Palm Beach. In May, a summons to produce the missing documents was sent to Donald Trump. His lawyers had returned 38 additional documents. Still convinced that it was missing, FBI agents had carried out a spectacular search at Mar-a-Lago on August 8 and had seized around thirty other boxes, containing 11,000 documents. According to the indictment, these “included information on the defense capabilities of the United States and foreign countries”, “on nuclear programs” Americans and “on potential vulnerabilities in the event of an attack on the United States and its allies”.
Another special prosecutor is investigating in parallel classified documents found earlier this year in a former office and at the home of Democratic President Joe Biden by his lawyers. These embarrassing finds, along with others from ex-Vice President Mike Pence, allowed Donald Trump to downplay the seriousness of his conduct, even though Joe Biden has always cooperated with justice, voluntarily returning the documents, in much smaller numbers. Anxious not to feed the accusations of “political persecution”the Democratic president, who will also seek a second term in 2024, assured Friday “not having spoken” of the file with his Minister of Justice, Merrick Garland, and to have ” no comment “.
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