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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Former President Donald Trump Saturday dismissed the recovery of “top secret” classified documents by the FBI at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate as a “hoax and scam”. Mr. Trump was speaking following the unsealing of a search Friday by a federal judge that authorized FBI agents to enter his residence to recover sensitive records.
"Like
all of the other Hoaxes and Scams that they've used to try and silence the
voice of a vast majority of the American People, I have TRUTH on my side,"
Trump wrote in a statement Saturday, "and when you have TRUTH, you will
ultimately be victorious!"
Washington
Examiner reported that the warrant unsealed Friday, cited 18 U.S. Code 793
(part of the Espionage Act) related to “gathering, transmitting, or losing
defense information.”
The former
president also faces allegations of obstruction of justice and concealing
documents.
What did the FBI recover from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate?
A property
receipt unsealed by the court shows FBI agents recovered 11 sets of classified
records from Trump’s residence during its search on Monday, The Associated
Press reports.
Some of the
seized documents include some marked top secret as well as “sensitive
compartmented information,” according to The Associated Press. Sensitive
compartmented information is a special category meant to protect the nation’s
most important secrets that could cause “exceptionally grave” damage to U.S.
interests if made available publicly, according to The Associated Press. No
specific details were made about documents by the court records.
What are federal investigating about Trump's handling of classified documents?
The warrant
says federal agents were investigating potential violations of three different
federal laws, governing gathering, transmitting or losing defense information
under the Espionage Act and another statute that addresses concealment,
mutilation or removal of records, according to The Associated Press. The third
statute addresses the destruction, alteration or falsification of records in
federal investigations.
The
Associated Press reported that the property receipt shows federal agents
collected other presidential records such as the pardoning of Trump ally Roger
Stone, a “leatherboard box of documents,” and information about the “President
of France.”
Other items
recovered include a binder of photos, a handwritten note, “miscellaneous secret
documents” and “miscellaneous confidential documents.”
On Friday
Trump issued a statement saying the documents seized by FBI agents were “all
declassified,” arguing that he would have turned them over if the Justice
Department demanded for them.
The former
president faces between three and twenty years if charged and convicted on
anyone of the charges.