US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents seized "top secret" documents during their search of former US President Donald Trump's home in Florida, according to a search memo published Friday as part of an investigation into possible violations of the anti-espionage law.
The memo and related materials, which a Florida judge ordered to be published, showed that the agents seized a large number of documents classified as "top secret", one of them related to the "President of France."
The unprecedented search of the administration of a former president was carried out against the background of suspected violations of the counterintelligence law in connection with the retention of sensitive defense documents, according to the memo.
According to the seven-page memo, among the seized documents were documents bearing the stamp “top secret” and “supposed to be kept only in special government facilities.”
The documents released included a list of items seized at the Trump residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, and a search warrant for the home in Palm Beach.
The Justice Department had asked a federal judge to release the search warrant on Friday unless Trump, who is assessing whether he could run in the 2024 presidential race, protested.
The 76-year-old former president said he did not object to the release of the memo but stressed that he was the victim of "politically motivated abuse of law enforcement" by "radical left Democrats".
Trump and his agents have had a copy of the search warrant for days, and they could have released it.
According to the Wall Street Journal, FBI agents seized 20 boxes of documents, including photo folders, a handwritten note and the pardon that Trump granted to his ally Roger Stone.
And on Thursday, the Washington Post quoted sources close to the investigation as saying that among the seizures were classified classified documents related to nuclear weapons.
In a comment he issued, Trump appeared to deny the veracity of this information, saying that the “nuclear weapons issue is a hoax,” hinting that the FBI might have “planted” evidence in his home.
Personal authentication
Attorney General Merrick Garland had announced that he had requested the publication of the search warrant, which he had personally approved.
On Thursday, Garland said he had requested the memo's release due to the "public interest nature of this matter," and had given Trump and his agents until Friday afternoon to object to the release, which they did not.
In an operation that appears to be directly related to the search of the Trump residence, a gunman attempted to storm the FBI headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday.
The person who tried to storm the station was shot dead by the police in an exchange of fire that followed an hours-long standoff.
On Thursday, Garland condemned what he described as "baseless attacks" against the FBI and the Department of Justice, while FBI Director Christor Wray condemned "violence and threats to law enforcement."
Typically, the Department of Justice neither confirms nor denies that an investigation has been opened, and Garland has tried hard to stress that the law is applied fairly in this case.
In a statement Thursday, Trump and his agents said they were "fully cooperative" and that the government "was able to get whatever it wanted, if we had it."
Trump is under the scrutiny of investigators over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and his suspected involvement in the January 2021 attack on the Capitol.
The House of Representatives launched a mechanism to impeach Trump, 76, after the Capitol events, but the Senate acquitted him after a few Republicans supported his conviction.
(AFP)